011 Standing Stone, Purveshaugh, Earlston. |
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Description
A large, 1.60m high, single standing stone situated on an
exposed ridge, beside a dry stone dyke running between two
cultivated fields. A high crop of barley at time of visit
prevented a thorough survey of the area. The stone stands about
20m from the main road and can be seen when passing. Two small
houses once existed in the area, taking their name from the
stone.
Directions
From Earlston, take the A6015 east for Gordon. After the junction
with the B6397 the road climbs a short hill with a series of sharp
bends. The stone can be seen in the fields to the south east at
the highest point.
Parking
Parking is difficult in the area and walking or cycling from
Earlston is the best option to reach this area. Note that the road
is fast and busy.
Fieldnotes
The noise of road traffic on the nearby A6105 and the line of
electricity pylons buzzing just a few metres to the south, tends
to spoil the atmosphere of what would otherwise be an
interesting standing stone. However, take these modern features
away, get rid of the dry stone wall and cultivated crops and you
can imagine what a fine location this must have been in the
past. The fort on Black Hill is easily visible in the south west
and the fabulous Brothers Stones and the Cow Stone are less than
3 miles to the south east. I suspect these are probably not in
direct line of sight as I did not remember to look during my
visit but it might be worth investigating to see otherwise and
walking a "ley" line between the two might be
interesting.
On re-visiting this location at a later date to obtain
additional images, the first thing I noticed was that the dry
stone wall had been rebuild allowing me access to the previously
hidden west side of the stone. Immediately of interest was the
odd shape of the stone. It has a projection at low level, almost
making the stone into a seat shape. To me this suggests either
the stone has been damaged, perhaps by lightning strike at some
time in the past and the broken section has fallen away, or this
is the natural shape of the stone. It may even have been why the
stone was erected. The low level "shelf" could be used
as a seat of sorts!
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