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Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland

Publication Account

Date 1987

Event ID 1016989

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016989

This impressive group of stones has been the subject of conjecture for centuries; the New Statistical Account offers the theories current in the 1840s, including a Roman origin, or perhaps the gravestones of Danish chiefs who were defeated by Banquo and Macbeth, or most probably Druidical remains. For the modern prehistorian, the mention of the discovery of 'ancient sepulchres' nearby is an interesting link to other stones, including Orwell (no. 101). An astronomical significance for the stones has also been suggested. There is a pair of stones with a third at a point 30m to the north; in the late 18th century there was a fourth stone which lay broken nearby. The single stone is about 5.5m tall, and the pair measures about 4.1m and 4.6m in height respectively.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).

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