Stones, standing and in circles! (A to Z challenge)

Follow the forest track

Arran is absolutely full of standing stones, circles and ancient stone crypts to the point that many are not marked or even noticed in everyday life.  So I decided to show you one that you may not visit, preferring to go to the larger and I have to say higher up on the reward for effort scale! At the top of the Brodick to Lamlash Road there is a car park marked Dun Fion, walking from that taking the right hand track a small sign can be found on the left to note  at this point there is an overgrown burial cairn, but go further down the steep, slippy slope and through the forest trees to a little clearing and you will find this single stone and another cairn (also overgrown), not much to see but quite a mystical place – and remember originally the forest would not have been here so the views would have been right across Lamlash Bay.

Sign at side of track where overgrown Dunan Mor Cairn can be found

If you do visit this one don’t miss out the little stone circle near the carpark!

Beyond the the cairn is a further sign heading towards Dunan Beag Cairn - fittingly slanting downwards as the slope is steep and slippy.

However I do feel I should mention some of the more famous sites such as the big standing stones on Machrie Moor where there are also at least 6 circles. Nearby is the circle at Auchagallon, not to mention the Druid stone, also at Machrie near to the Olde Byre visitor centre.  But in Brodick an unmarked stone sits at the end of the driveway to the Big Wooden House and easily goes unnoticed, as do many in the fields along the Brodick Castle driveway.

Small standing stone near the Dunan Beag cairn.

An interesting stone can be found in the forest at Stonach, where rare cup and ring markings are etched into a large slab. In Whiting Bay, a walk up the hill at Glenashdale brings you to the Giants Graves, and I could go on and on, naming different points of interest.