Tuesday 6 December 2022

Skulferatu #87 - Machrie Moor, Arran

  

On Machrie Moor there stand six stone circles, so I headed off there for a wander around an ancient landscape of standing stones and distant hills.

 

From the car park I headed off along a gentle and winding path that led me through fields of sheep, and then out into a land of mystical magic.  There is almost something unreal about the moor, it is sort of Hollywood film set in the way it looks.  All it really needed to finish it off would be some pixies and wizards wandering around, maybe a group or two of druids...or a few hobbits.  But this is no film set, it is real.  It is a landscape of Neolithic ritual and also of everyday domestic activity with the remains of hut circles and ancient farming activity having been discovered there.

 

A photo of what looks like a random collection of boulders lying on a flat piece of land with some trees in the background - the stones form a stone circle known as Fingal's Cauldron Seat.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Fingal’s Cauldron Seat

 

A picture of a ruined building with a tree growing out from where the roof once was - these are the ruins of Moss Farm.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Ruins of Moss Farm

 

Just by the derelict buildings of Moss Farm stands a circle of stones known as Fingal’s Cauldron Seat.  This consists of a ring of inner stones and a ring of outer stones.  Local legend has it that on one of his many journeys through Arran, the warrior giant Fin McCool cooked his tea in a huge cauldron supported by the inner ring of stones and tethered his dog to one of the outer stones.

 

Down from the farm buildings and in a more peaty and mossy area sit, or should that be stand, a whole load more stone circles.  Some of these are made from granite boulders, while others are tall slabs of sandstone.  The stones circles are thought to date from around 4,500 years ago and were places of religious activity for many years, being used as burial sites long after they had been built.

 

A photo taken through the branches of a dead tree showing a standing stone in the distance on a moor with mountains in the background.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone framed by dead tree

 

A photo of a flat moor landscape with a standing stone in the distance and mountains in the background.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of a standing stone on Machrie Moor - it is framed by mountains in the distance.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of a tall and flat standing stone on Machrie Moor.  It sits in short grass with some reed like grass to one side.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of a tall and flat standing stone on Machrie Moor.  It sits in short grass with some reed like grass to one side.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A close up of a red sandstone standing stone with mountains in the background.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A photo showing on one side part of the red sandstone of a standing stone and then a view over the moor to the mountains in the background.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View by one of the standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of three, tall and grey standing stones on Machrie Moor.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of three, tall and grey standing stones on Machrie Moor.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of three, tall standing stones on Machrie Moor - from closer up they have a red brown colour.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

The stone circles on Machrie Moor have long held a fascination for natives and visitors to Arran alike, with Patrick Murray writing in 1883 that – ‘...in the whole Island, I know of no more interesting sight, or one better worth visiting, than the stone circles of the Machrie Moor. As you approach them, the tall upright forms of the standing stones rise up before you, silent and solemn, from the solitary heath.  As we look on them the mind wanders backward over the ages with a strong desire to know something of the people who must have toiled and laboured at their erection. Who were they.? In what age did they live? What was the nature of their religious belief? That the circles have been used at some time as places of burial has been ascertained; but was that their original or their only use? Have they not also been used as places of worship? For answer to all this we can only conjecture, but I think we shall not greatly err if we recognise in them the silent tribute of a people long since passed away to that mysterious Power which governs the universe and overlooks the actions of man.

 

A photo of a red sandstone standing stone on Machrie Moor - it has a slight lightning bolt type shape to it.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of a standing stone on Machrie Moor - it is of red sandstone and is shaped slightly like a tooth.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stone on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of some circular grey and flat stones on Machrie Moor with a red sandstone standing stone behind them.   Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of some circular grey and flat stones on Machrie Moor with a red sandstone standing stone behind them.   Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of a stone circle of grey boulders.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Ring of standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

A photo of some of the grey boulders making up the stone circle.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Ring of standing stones on Machrie Moor

 

After a wander around the marshy ground absorbing the atmosphere of the place, and absorbing a lot of water into my rather inadequate footwear, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my trip, in a hollow, high up in one of the stones.

 

A photo of a hand holding up a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 87) in front of three standing stones.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #87

 

A photo of a section of a standing stone - a Skulferatu can partially be seen in a hollow in the stone.  Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Spot the Skulferatu

 

A photo of a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 87) in a hollow within one of the standing stones.   Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #87 in a hollow in one of the stones

 

TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #87
Map showing location of Skulferatu #87

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.540656

Longitude -5.312024

 

what3words: vote.weekday.arranger

 

I used the following sources for information on Machrie Moor –

 

Information boards at the site

 

The Book of Arran

Edited by J. A. Balfour

1910

 

Natives of Arran in Glasgow

Ayrshire Weekly News and Galloway Press - Saturday 10 February 1883

 

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