Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

Trip No.107  Entry No.4  Date Added: 15th Nov 2018
Site Type: Museum Country: Scotland (North Lanarkshire)
Visited: Yes on 29th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow: After Glasgow Cathedral and the Govan Stones, I found the exhibition of Scotland's Early People a little small and disappointing, but what they had on display was interesting. Best items on display for me were the beaker found when they excavated Temple Wood in Kilmartin and a wooden ladder from a crannog. And of course the rock art stone Andy B was photographed with!

Tuilyies

Trip No.111  Entry No.2  Date Added: 14th Nov 2018
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Tuilyies Stone Setting: There is a small layby on the A985, right by the stones, but as there was no direct entrance into the field, we ended up walking along the grass verge down to where the wire fence is jointed to a wooden one. This is by a small clump of trees, at NT 02801 86657, where we succeeded in clambering over the fence.

The stones are set in a very ‘lumpy and bumpy’ field that looks like it has several building platforms and banks within it, but no structures are visible.

The tall stone to the north north west of the setting of three stones is tall and impressive (although thin) with the eastern face peppered in cup marks.

Combined with the three stones to the south south east reminded us somewhat of the stone setting at Kilmartin. I amused myself by standing behind the taller stone trying to line it up with the three smaller ones, but there was always one stone hidden from view, behind the larger stone.

The Firth of Forth glinted in the sunlight to the south. Shame about the proximity to the main road.

Pitcorthie.

Trip No.111  Entry No.3  Date Added: 14th Nov 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Pitcorthie Standing Stone, Dunfermline: Our last site visit of our short holiday, and I wish we'd picked a better spot to end on. After the Balfarg Henge, I shouldn't have been surprised that this stone is surprisingly right in the middle of a housing estate, on Standing Stone Walk.

It is a poor, sadly neglected stone; it could just have been a garden feature, especially as it is set in a rectangular pavement of black stones. Like a previous visitor to the stone, being surrounded by rows and rows of houses, we very much felt watched as I was taking photographs and looking around.

Dogton

Trip No.110  Entry No.5  Date Added: 13th Nov 2018
Site Type: Class III Pictish Cross Slab Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 1st Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Dogton Cross: With the clocks having gone back an hour on the Sunday before, it was difficult to correctly judge how fast dusk would fall. It was getting a little dark, but whilst we were here, we really wanted to see this stone.

With the roads busy at this time of night, we managed to park just off the road at the entrance to the track leading up to Kinglassie House, just off the B922 and set off up the footpath to find this cross.

The gate into the field the stone was in was an amalgamation of several gates tied together, so it was easier just to step over the tumbled stones by the gate post. Fortunately the field the stone was in had just been harvested, so we walked up through the corn stubble, just as dusk was setting in.

I photographed each face of the cross by leaning over the railings, or poking the camera through the railings, then stitched them together.

The sign on the railings reads: “Dogton Stone. This stone is a free-standing Celtic cross probably 10th century AD. The top and arms of the cross have been destroyed, but the centre boss is still visible on the east face. A horseman is carved below it and there are entwined serpentine animals on the south face. Cared for by Historic Scotland.”

When I got back home and looked at the Canmore records, I was surprised to see the cross and its railings had been, in the not too distant past (photo dated 1927), incorporated into a dry stone wall, no longer there.

Balfarg Riding School mortuary enclosure and henge

Trip No.110  Entry No.3  Date Added: 13th Nov 2018
Site Type: Henge Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 1st Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Balfarg Riding School Henge Reconstruction: This now recreated henge is just by the A92, at the end of Old Leslie Road, with part of it seeming to have been cut by the construction of the A92. Traffic streams by constantly.

We arrived with the sun high in the sky and deep shadows, which tested my photography skills. I had expected a circular henge, but this was oval. I didn't pick up any atmosphere at this site at all. Sadly, it was just like walking through some old fence posts set up to cast some interesting shadows.

The information board reads: “You are standing in a revered landscape where ceremonies were performed by generations of prehistoric people. Here is an artist’s reconstruction of how the stone circle looked around 4,000 years ago. By this time it had already been in use for 1,000 years, when it became a place of burial. It stood close to the Coul Burn which then enclosed a wider sacred landscape. The picture shows the site of the Balfarg Henge and timber enclosure in the distance.”

Balbirnie

Trip No.110  Entry No.1  Date Added: 13th Nov 2018
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 1st Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Balbirnie Stone Circle: It was a good job we had the SatNav and the GPS, which took us almost to the spot. As this was right next to a modern housing estate, we found layby to park in about 100m metres away in Tofthill and walked back to the stone circle, which has a footpath running to its eastern side. Nicely preserved stone circle with cists with an information board and a recreated rock art panel.

We took a few minutes to spot the rock art panel, but realised it had fallen over slightly, so wasn't very visible. I did my best to photograph it in situ.

Balfarg Henge

Trip No.110  Entry No.2  Date Added: 12th Nov 2018
Site Type: Henge Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 1st Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Balfarg Henge: From Balbirnie stone circle, to reach this recreated henge, we needed to turn right across the busy A92, then almost immediately left down the B969 Western Avenue. The SatNav then took us directly to the henge. Right in the middle of a housing estate, on a circular street appropriately called ‘The Henge’.

Typically for me, just as we stopped the car and I jumped out with my camera, a large delivery van decided to draw up and park in one of the parking spots right next to the outer boundary of henge, so I tried to avoid photographing him!

The Maiden Stone (Tullibody)

Trip No.109  Entry No.7  Date Added: 12th Nov 2018
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Clackmannanshire)
Visited: Yes on 31st Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Maiden Stone, Tullibody: This stone coffin is next to the ruins of the old church. We parked in the car park for the new church and walked through the graveyard which runs parallel to the road. Some really unusual tombstones, and quite spooky to walk through the graveyard and look around the outside of the Old Church as dusk was falling on Halloween!

Court Cave

Date Added: 12th Nov 2018
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 1st Nov 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Court Cave, East Wemyss: This cave is signposted as 'Dangerous' and 'Keep Out' due to falling rocks from the roof, so despite reading about the symbols on Canmore, we didn't venture in.

Haer Stane

Trip No.109  Entry No.8  Date Added: 12th Nov 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Clackmannanshire)
Visited: Yes on 31st Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Haer Stane, Tullibody: This is one of the strangest erratics I’ve seen, as it’s been repurposed as a war memorial. We parked on School Road, by the school, and walked down to the entrance to this long, thin park; the only gate we could find into this area was through a lych gate at the corner of School Road and Lychgate Road. The erratic is almost at the far (north western) end of the park.

The stone was adjacent to the rear of the school where a large construction project is taking place, so the noise was very intrusive. We were the only people taking note of this erratic; all the other people around must have been locals who were walking their dogs.

The crosses on the eastern face of the cross shaft have been well done, and mimic Anglo Saxon crosses with interlaced designs.

Wizard's Stone (Dollar)

Trip No.109  Entry No.4  Date Added: 11th Nov 2018
Site Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature Country: Scotland (Clackmannanshire)
Visited: Yes on 31st Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Wizard's Stone (Dollar): We stopped off at a café in Dollar for a sandwich and cup of tea, then set off north east out of the town to find the Wizard’s Stone. This was really easy to spot. There is a small area to park on Hillfoot Road, where the road divides, at NS 96634 98999.

Rather than walk up ‘the (marked foot) path’ we walked into the field to photograph the stone. There are a number of pieces lying immediately around the stone, the larger of which appears deeply embedded in the ground; a smaller piece looks as if it had spalled off through, perhaps, frost action.

Tullibole

Trip No.109  Entry No.1  Date Added: 11th Nov 2018
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Fife)
Visited: Yes on 31st Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Tullibole Church Ruins with hogback in five pieces: Our first stop of the day, and as Andrew told me this was a site where 11 witches were tried, condemned and burned, a site I thought would be a good, spooky, start to the Halloween. But, this is essentially a field with a few gravestones sticking out of it, and it turned out the trials had taken place at nearby Tullibole Castle. The remains of the church are there, on the south side buried deep in the grass and turf, but more visible on the northern side, where several courses of stones stick up out of the ground.

There is a display board next to a large monument surrounded by a metal railing and tall conifers, but we had difficulty orientating ourselves to the photos, eventually picking up the display board (which was propped up against the railings, and taking it over to the chest tombs).

We did find one part of the hogback, and possibly a second, but the grass tussocks were so high, we were unable to find any more pieces.

As the information sheets were covered in plastic, but the rain was seeping through, and they are likely to become even more worn and stained, I photographed a couple of them and typed them up for future reference.

Bull Stone (Crook of Devon)

Trip No.109  Entry No.2  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Perth and Kinross)
Visited: Yes on 31st Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Bull Stone, Crook of Devon: We parked in St Serf’s Road, Crook of Devon, at NO 03303 00037 and walked down Church Road, then took the right hand fork of the footpath, which lead almost directly south. Just under 220 metres from the fork, there is a farm track which leads off to the east. The Bull Stone is showed on the map just up this track, on its northern side.

I thought this stone was just part of an old stone wall, as the stone was fragmented and cemented together again. It wasn’t until I saw the photo on TNA that I believed we had seen the right stone! Not a brilliant monument, but a nice, short walk, and another to ‘tick off the list’ of sites seen.

Chapel Well (Cambusbarron)

Trip No.108  Entry No.7  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Bruce's Well, Cambusbarron: Even with the GPS from the Portal, we had great trouble finding this well, and in the end had to ask two locals. One pointed us to an old water fountain in a nearby park, now repurposed as a planter; the other took us to a footpath by the side of a small stream and pointed us down the path, saying “a lot of people come to look, but there’s not really much to see.”

We found the steps, as photographed on the Portal, but there was a sign declaring this the site of the well only.

In the middle of the village, a police officer was standing in a doorway with a number of people outside making phone calls. As we headed up the steps from the site of the well back to the car, a white clothed forensics officer exited the house. Haven't found out what happened, but this certainly made it a memorable visit to the site of this well.

Coneypark Nursery (Cambusbarron)

Trip No.108  Entry No.6  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 31st Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Coneypark Nursery Cairn: This cairn is right in the middle of a modern housing estate, where it has been left as a corner ‘open space’. The sides of the cairn have been marginally cut away to create the road and the gardens for the houses, but it is possible to walk over the cairn. A few of the residents were arriving home and in their driveways; none of them took (much) notice of me taking photographs and having a walk all around the cairn.

There is nothing much to see here, but it was ‘one to tick off our list’.

St Thomas's Well (Cambusbarron)

Trip No.108  Entry No.5  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: St Thomas's Well, Cambusbarron: St Thomas’s Well is not far from the rock art panel. Going back to the car, we drove further down Douglas Terrace, past the grave yard, to where the road (St Thomas’s Well) turns right. The well is just past it’s junction with the Old Turnpike Road.

This well is in a private garden. It is possible to walk all the way round the well pool, but not to access the garden. The pool still had water in it, but only a relatively small amount. The whole pool was around 30m across. At its western side, there was a paved area with a round well basin built into it, but this looked like a garden feature rather than part of the well structure.

By the names and the old buildings, this is obviously a very old location with history, but no longer has the atmosphere with the modern houses built up around the historical sites. The busy M9 lies almost immediately to the west, although the noise of the traffic was masked to some extent by the buildings between the well and the road.

King's Park Cup and Rings

Trip No.108  Entry No.4  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Rock Art Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: King's Park Cup and Rings, Sterling: From Stirling, we headed off to south end of King’s Park which lies south of the A811 Dumbarton Road. The rock art panel is located at the southern end, near the golf course.

We parked on Douglas Terrace and used the little cut-through to the park at the eastern end of the row of terraced houses before its junction with Park Place. We then turned west along the footpath that ran along the bottom of the cliffs, but had to double back and use the footpath and steps up to the golf course, just to the right of the cut-through. From here, we turned west along the footpath. The grid reference is spot on, and the rock had had the turf cleared from it. The low light at this time of the afternoon helped to pick out the motifs.

I wondered what other motifs there might be around here, as the footpath here runs along the top of some small cliffs, but these were heavily wooded.

St Ninian's Well (Stirling)

Trip No.108  Entry No.3  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: St Ninian's Well, Stirling: This was just over the road from the Wellgreen Carpark, but we had difficulty in finding this well, because of its rather hidden location. Despite the GPS telling us we were only 20m away, we were unable to find it until we saw the footpath leading to Wellgreen Place at the southern side of the A811 Wellgreen Road. Shame the area is used by smokers, as the rubbish is horrible.

Opposite the well, nearer to the office block is a small set of steps leading upwards to a now very much overgrown garden area. The steps are virtually hidden under shrubbery, and although Andrew had a try at climbing up, it was very difficult and we gave up and went onto our next destination.

Butt Well

Trip No.108  Entry No.2  Date Added: 9th Nov 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Butt Well, Sterling Castle: We parked in the layby near the King’s Knot, just off the A811. There is a footpath signposted to Butt Well leading through the field next to the layby, just down the grassy slope.

Walking up towards the Castle, we were met by a fair number of dog walkers walking to or from the well. The footpaths here look as if they give access up to the castle, but we stopped short at the well.

Our first sight of part of this feature was a small well chamber, still with a fair flow of water running into it, just over the dry stone wall, below the main well housing and at the bottom of the flight of steps, at NS 78937 93894. The water from this runs in a small channel across the field to the northern side of the wall, at the opposite side to the footpath. Looking down at this chamber from above, there appears to be the remains of a stone drinking trough just outside the chamber, but largely buried under the grass and weeds around it.

The well itself, at NS 78948 93898, is now dry and capped off, with a handy bench next to it.

Climbing up the few steps above the main well housing, there is a channel running underneath the footpath running off to the north west at NS 78952 93902.

As I was photographing the well, a young black Labrador was running around with a large tree branch in his mouth. I was laughing at him, and his owner came up and asked us where we were from. He said when he was young, he used to play on the ‘cup and saucer’ (the King’s Knot) then run up here for a drink; “the water was the clearest you’ll ever taste”. He told me that they’d capped the well off some 20 to 30 years ago.

Randolphfield Stones

Trip No.108  Entry No.1  Date Added: 8th Nov 2018
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Randolphfield Stones, Sterling: This visit felt really strange, as the stones were literally in front of the police station, and I wondered if I’d get a tap on the shoulder and the memory card from my camera confiscated! No one seemed to turn a hair, though I took a number of photographs of both stones.