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Sites Anne T has logged on trip number: 110 (View all trips)
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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
Balfarg Henge submitted by cosmic on 4th Dec 2003. Balfarg is a henge which was excavated when a housing estate was built round it in the 1970's. There are only two standing stones but post holes found inside the henge have been marked with a set of wooden posts.
Surprisingly only one part of the henge ditch seems to have been subject to vandalism (by bikes?)
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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!
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
Balbirnie submitted by Nick on 5th Nov 2002. From the A92 running north from Glenrothes, turn east onto the un-numbered road for Star and Kennoway. 100m along this road is a sign for the Balbirnie housing development, turn in here and about 150m/200m along, where the road curves right, you will see the circle just below you. Park up in the housing development itself and walk back. The site itself dates from c3000 B.C., and used to be located 125m to the north west of where it stands at present. It was always known locally as the "Druid...
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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 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
Balfarg Riding School mortuary enclosure and henge submitted by SandyG on 3rd Jan 2015. The reconstructed mortuary enclosure. View from north west (19th April 2014).
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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.”
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
Dogton submitted by cosmic on 15th Feb 2006. Dogton from East
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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.