Wester Biggs (Dunblane)

Trip No.83  Entry No.5  Date Added: 24th Jul 2018
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: Scotland (Perth and Kinross)
Visited: Couldn't find on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Wester Biggs Stone Circle, Near Dunblane: Returning from tea and cakes in Dunblane, we resumed our search for megalithic sites. Next stop, hopefully, a not-before-photographed stone circle, right by the side of the road.

Finding the telephone mast and driving a couple of hundred yards further on, we parked at NN 86368 06240 and walked back south along the road, armed with the Canmore listing on my phone and the GPS.

Despite an intensive search of the land east of the road around this point, we were unable to locate any stones amongst the tall heather. However, there was a circle of gras/vergetation which was different from any heather at almost exactly the grid reference given by Canmore, so I photographed ‘the spot’. Andrew thinks the stones may have been removed. Always possible, but I think we need to return when the shrubbery has died back.

Glennan Standing Stone

Trip No.83  Entry No.3  Date Added: 1st Aug 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Glennan Standing Stones and Cairns: What could top Kintraw Standing Stones & Cairns? But we found places that almost did. Carrying on down the A816 towards Kilmartin, we turned east on the road towards the small village of Ford, travelling along a very beautiful valley. We stopped at Old Glennan farmhouse (pulled into the gateway to the track up to the house, which looked as if it hadn’t been used in ages, and was in sight of the stone). Letting ourselves in through the gate, we followed the track up, with the line of an old stone wall, now only ankle height, up to where it turned a corner, just to the north of the house. The stone appeared to be incorporated into a taller part of the wall.

Walking back to the car, I spotted what looked like a cairn with a slight ditch around it. Andrew looked up the Canmore reference on his phone and determined there were two cairns near the gate, one much reduced. According to Canmore there is a cup marked stone on one, although both cairns were well grassed over at the time of our visit.

Gleneagles A

Trip No.83  Entry No.9  Date Added: 25th Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Perth and Kinross)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Peterhead Farm Standing Stone, Gleneagles: Our last stop of the day. Driving (it was too hot, and we were too lazy to walk) further along the single track road towards the mast and the entrance to Peterhead Farm, we parked near the mast and walked across the road. The nearest gate into the field appeared to be near the farm buildings, so we clambered over the wooden fence at the corner of the road with the farm track.

This standing stone looks as if it sits just below the top of a natural mound. There were quite a few packing stones around the base of the stone, with others scattered around the ground nearby.

Gleneagles B

Trip No.83  Entry No.8  Date Added: 25th Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Perth and Kinross)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Peterhead Farm Pictish Symbol Stone: Right next to the A9, so the atmosphere wasn’t brilliant, but ignoring the traffic, looking east, this was a glorious setting.

There was a gate into this field full of sheep, so we let ourselves in and walked over to the stone, which now sits within 30m of a slip road leading to the A9. The Gleneagles roundabout with its golf club ‘sculpture’ provide a strange backdrop.

The views to the east are somewhat different, and facing this way, you could almost believe you were in the country. Whilst the black clouds were gathering to the north and east, there was no rain.

I was fascinated by the two quartz inclusions underneath the symbols.

Dunblane Cathedral

Trip No.83  Entry No.7  Date Added: 25th Jul 2018
Site Type: Class III Pictish Cross Slab Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Ancient crosses at Dunblane Cathedral: Having been bitten and bitten again by horseflies at Sheriffmuir Stone Row, the weather being very hot and humid, and the Sheriffmuir Inn decidedly shuttered up, we decided to go into Dunblane to find a cup of tea and a late lunch. We managed to find a parking spot just opposite the cathedral, so after tea and a jacket potato at the Beech Tree café, we walked back and went into the cathedral.

This is a really welcoming and peaceful church. The young lady who greeted us and sold us a guide book could hardly be heard for the organist “practising for tomorrow – but you can enjoy the music. You can take photographs, but don’t use the flash around the organist.”

The highlight for me was the two cross marked stones at the western end of the northern aisle. There is a lot of information about the cathedral itself, but not much about the crosses. We marvelled at how worn some of the bases of the columns and other architectural features, as part of the cathedral stood roofless for over 300 years from the late 1500s (says the guide book).

The guide book (page 10) talks about the crosses, saying in the North Aisle: “Here there is a large carved cross – evidence that Dunblane was a religious centre from an early date. Discovered beneath the chapter house floor in 1873, it dates from the 9th century. On the back of the stone are allegorical figures – there are two animals sitting entwined and a horse and rider with an animal, perhaps a wolf, below the horse. Also on display is a fragment from a similar cross-slab found in 1836. It also dates to the 8th or 9th century. The presence of both stones suggests that there may have been an earlier church on this site. Architectural fragments dating from the 1100s and 1200s were found during the construction of the boiler house under the chancel and chapter house in 1836. Some of these fragments are on display in the north aisle. The finely worked chevrons (zigzags) on the arch fragments, and the elaborate column cap hint at the exquisite decoration of the earlier cathedral. Fragments from the 1300s and 1400s are also on display.”

I completely forgot about the four cists around the cathedral, and I didn't have a mobile signal to call up the Portal or the Canmore records, but we will be coming back here at some point in the relatively near future.

The Boat Stone

Trip No.83  Entry No.6  Date Added: 24th Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Perth and Kinross)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Boat Stone, Sheriffmuir to Dunblane lane: Marked on the OS map, but not on Canmore, this fallen standing stone is featured on the Portal and The Northern Antiquarian. The road is single track at this point, with not many passing places. The farmer had left the gate into the field wide open, and it was dry, bare soil. We dared to pull the car just inside the gate.

The farmer had heaped a beautifully large pile of maturing manure between the gate and the stone, so I took a slightly wider berth round this than I might have, with the heat and the flies!

This large stone is impressive. It sites on a mound (I walked around it to photograph it and had to step up the mound to get to the top of the stone) and has some lovely quartz inclusions.

Sheriff Muir Row

Trip No.83  Entry No.2  Date Added: 24th Jul 2018
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Sheriffmuir Stone Row: Please can I claim the Portal prize for 'the most horsefly bites at one ancient site'? At first glance, it looked easy to walk to this stone row. The reality was it was a couple of hundred yards from the road, in deep heather. Having waded through the shrubbery, and having found the Wallace Stone, however, finding the rest of the stones was easy, as they are more or less in a line running north east to south west. I managed to pull up Sandy G’s ”Stone Rows of Great Britain” website, with details of the stones, which helped enormously.

The horse flies were horrendous. I got eaten alive, and was glad to get back to the car to slap some antihistamine on. It was a real shame the Sheriffmuir Inn wasn’t open, as we were desparate for a cold drink (any drink, really) by the time we’d walked to, and photographed, all five stones.

We decided to go onto Dunblane for a cup of tea and something to eat (and lots of antihistamine cream for me!). Despite all the bites, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring this stone row, in the brilliant sunshine and glorious views.

The Gathering Stone

Trip No.83  Entry No.1  Date Added: 24th Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Gathering Stone, Sheriffmuir: From the Sheriffmuir Cairn & Macrae Clan Monument at NN 81569 01934, we followed the footpath to its eastern side, between the main monument and the cairn, following the line of the stone wall, heading in a roughly north westerly direction.

Eventually a path split off to our left, slightly more westwards and this led us to the Gathering Stone – a strange, strange sight, being protected by its ‘iron ribs’. It most definitely looks like a recumbent standing stone, now split into at least three parts.

The ribs are very reminiscent of graves covered to protect them from graverobbers. To me, in this setting, it felt like the iron bars constrained the standing stone from getting up off the ground and becoming upright again.

Continuing slightly further west along the track, you cross some rocks which have been much graffitied. We read that the mounds of earth here are the graves of 600 of the fallen from the Battle of Sheriffmuir.