Archaeology Notes

Event ID 723626

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/723626

NX08SE 1 0873 8172.

(Centred NX 0873 8172) Garleffin Standing Stones (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

A group of eight stones five of which stood erect and three prostrate in 1856. By 1895 only two of the prostrate stones could be identified. The setting appears to be in the form of a half ellipse about 233 yards long with two of the stones being only a yard apart. Local tradition says that a battle was fought here and the stones mark the sites where chieftains fell.

Name Book 1856; J Smith 1895

The Garleffin Standing Stones are as described below:-

'A': NX 0879 8175. Of rectangular section, 1.1m wide, 0.4m thick and 1.6m high.

'B': NX 0873 8173. Of irregular shape 1.3m by 0.7m at base and 0.5m high.

'C': NX 0873 8173. Of approximately rectangular section 1.3m by 0.8m

and 1.3m high.

'D': NX 0871 8166. Of roughly triangular section, 0.7m by 0.6m by 0.5m at base, tapering to a point, 1.1m high.

'E': NX 0872 8164. Of roughly triangular section, 0.9m by 0.7m by 0.7m at base, tapering to an approximately circular section 0.4m in diameter at the top, 1.2m high.

'F': NX 0872 8162. Of sub-rectangular section, 1.2m wide by 0.7m thick and 1.6m high.

'G': NX 0875 8181. Of roughly rectangular shape, 1.7m long by 0.9m thick and 0.7m high in a recumbent position.

'H': NX 0875 8173. No trace remains of this stone. These stones do not appear to represent the remains of a regularly planned figure.

Visited by OS (DS) 25 July 1956

The stones are as described by OS (DS).

Surveyed at 1:2500. Visited by OS (WDJ) 3 December 1970

The seven stones are situated on a focal promontory of the raised beach 50 foot contour, and are mostly in an area of permanent pasture. Their exact positions are as follows:

'A': NX 08788 81747,

'B': NX 08720 81731,

'C': NX 08719 81728,

'D': NX 08720 81655,

'E': NX 08719 81635,

'F': NX 08726 81616,

'G': NX 08745 81810.

Stones A, B, C, D and F lie on the arc of a circle about 74.0m in radius, while E falls within the circle and the recumbent G in any configuration must be considered an outlier. E and F now fall in

the landscaped garden of a bungalow built in 1966. The owner confirms they are untouched and in situ.

No significant features were noted on perambulation to the E of the existing settings on land under cultivation and no local information

was obtained regarding the existance of stone H.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JRL) 14 March 1977

Stone G; the northernmost of this group of seven stones has been removed from its recorded position in the middle of a field under cultivation. It has been moved c45m W to the edge of the ploughed area.

Strathclyde Regional Council 1991.

Of the original eight standing stones which once stood in a field to the NW of Garleffin farm, only two survive in their original position. In 1991, seven stones remained, one was then removed, as stated above, and a further stone moved to the edge of the field. Three others were taken to a nearby ravine (Glasgow Herald, 5 February 1991). Only stones designated E and F by the OS, remain in their original position, lying within the garden of a private house.

Information from RCAHMS (KJ) 17 March 1999.

The northernmost stone was removed to the W side of the terrace by the new owner late in 1991 and in January 1992, after notification of Historic Scotland's intentions to schedule the site, the remaining four stones within the field were also removed. Nonetheless associated archaeological remains may survive and it will be possible

to re-erect these stones as a landscape feature.

Information from Historic Scotland scheduling document; OS surveyor (FTP), May 2000