The Isle of Skye - Hunting for Stones Part 1

The Isle of Skye - Hunting for Stones Part 1

View from the front of our tent, the Red Cullins to the right

The Red Cullin range in front of the tent

Looking back over tent, the Black Cullin range (and our neighbour's tent)

Having recently returned from the Misty Isle, it's time for a rundown on my stone hunting antics, and time to put a brief line under Skye. I've certainly got some other places and stones I want to search for on Skye, but for now there is many other stones and places to visit and the excited child in me struggles to stay on one task for too long! 

For a recap, the stones I wrote about on Skye were: Clach Mhor Mhic Crimmon, Glagen-Glune, the lifting stone(s) of An Sithean, Dunscaith Stone, Clach Mhor Na Saothraich, Ultach Gillean a' Bealaich and Clach Chraboithbh I'c Thearlaich. Due to those pesky things called time and distance constraints, my trip involved MacCrimmon's stone, An Sithean and Dunscaith. If you're ever in Skye for reasons stone related or not, then enjoy, for it is a beautiful part of the world with many other sights and places to visit that this blog won't be covering. We were blessed with glorious sunshine pretty much non stop for our time there, but even if it is raining or overcast (as is the norm in Scotland), it loses none of it's wonder.

After a brief stop over to Glen Roy on the trip up north for the stones there, the first stone on the Skye list was Clach Mhor Mhic Crimmon, MacCrimmon's big stone. Situated in Boraraig up on the north eastern edges of Skye, across the Loch from Dunvegan castle. After finding the piping memorial - (which took a bit of work and the friendly aid of a local sheep farmer), the task begun. 

I'll spare you the history and such as that was covered in my original posts on this stone, save for

the fact that the site is roughly the area of the original piping school from 1500-1800. The memorial cairn sits on a relatively flat piece of ground(picture two), devoid of any stones large enough to warrant lifting, never mind large enough to be described as a "big stone". Below the cairn field the land slopes(picture four) away, with a lone bench offering a rather picturesque spot to sit and gaze out across the Loch. After the incline the land flattens out again (picture five) were the ruins of a small structure can be seen, and a small section of curved wall to the left of it. Picture seven shows the wall I believe mentioned in a source, with the stone lying out of shot towards the person taking the picture.  One source had described it as laying near the ruins of the college - and whilst these don't particularly look like much left in ruins I could not see any other ruins in the area.

The lower plain was rather thick with low level vegetation, and many stones around the area were rather densely lodged into place by plants growing around them. Near the wall section, down a slight slope, was a rather large - but not too large stone. The second source, which described a number of local men moving the stone to prove a point that it was done unaided by Peter MacCrimmion all those years ago, described using a wall with which to lever themselves against the stone to roll it down the incline, several yards until it stopped. A yard is 0.92m, in case you're like me and not imperial literate. At the time this made little sense to me, talk of levering against a wall seemed rather abstract, however being at the site and looking around, this makes much much more sense. 

 

Excuse my mug in the above photo. The second photo is the sole photo I was able to find, without an attached date. Apparently (Wikipedia tells me at least), colour photos have been the main form of photography since 1970, so I'd imagine that photo at least predates that - by quite a way I imagine. Returning to me, and what I believe to be Clach Mhor Mhic Crimmion, the raised stoney/bushy outcrop to the left of the photo about 3/4 of the way up is the wall that can be seen in the more aerial view photos. Without knowing which direction the original photo was taken in, I can't try match any other landmarks. There's no other large stones near this wall, it is certainly down a gradient, sitting perhaps 3-4 metres from the wall. A sensible thing to do would have been measure it with a tape measure, but I was both without one, and too excited to be sensible. I can't match the shape of the stone, as clearly during it's rolling it now landed a different way up.

Why did you not remove the vegetation then and try get a better picture I hear myself asking? I did try remove a little vegetation before trying to roll the stone out of it's resting spot, but it certainly felt like an impossible task. A source in 1923 listed the weight of this stone as 355-406kg, which would explain the difficulty in trying to move it. I'd probably not believe that figure as it is astronomically large, however heavy it certainly is. Maybe it would have moved easier if it was freed from it's resting spot among the plants, but I decided it felt rather disrespectful to the nature and wildlife that might be potentially disturbed, if I didn't think I would be lifting or attempting to lift the stone anyways. 

That marks the end of the first installment of the adventure, and what I believe was a successful outcome of finding Clach Mhor Mhic Crimmion. The stone was carried 182m to it's resting spot, the locals believe unaided, Peter Martin mentioned it under the "aided" section of his book via a pullaid. Whichever you believe, it's an amazing location and a big stone.