Craigenkirn
Milngavie, Stirling
Long Cairn? Modern Ruin? A combination?

I learned about this location on the excellent Northern Antiquarian website.

Near the summit of a low hill are three standing stones at one end of a long turf-covered mound. It's quite reminiscent of the probable long cairn at Blanefield or perhaps the one on Stockie Muir or Cameron Home Farm. Such a long cairn would not seem out of place here.

There are a large number of cup marks on the three stones, but these aren't ancient - just a sign that someone likes shooting at rocks.

However the site doesn't have a CANMORE record, which is surprising for a monument that is quite this obvious. The hollows within the body of the 'cairn' that I took to be signs of stone-robbing, they now look to me like they might be spaces between ruined walls. Also very interesting, there's a rectangular structure marked at this location on the 1977-79 OS 1:10000 map which doesn't appear on later maps. Could it just be the remains of a simple building or animal enclosure? The remaining stones do seem rather substantial for that, but not impossibly so. But whatever was here, it doesn't look like a modern ruin. The more I think about it the more it confuses me.

I'm not 100% convinced either way, but maybe this might not all be as ancient as I first thought. A return visit is needed.

Images ©2018 Martin McCarthy, Theasis Photography

Nearby Sites

2km Blanefield Standing Stones; Cairn
4km Whitehill Cup and Ring Marks
4km Strathblane Parish Church Standing Stone
5km Broadgate Farm Standing Stone
5km Stockie Muir Chambered Cairn
6km Bearsden Bathhouse Roman Fort
6km Auld Wives Lifts Carved Stone; Celtic Heads
13km Fintry Standing Stone
14km St. Maha's Well Standing Stone; Well
14km Waterhead Standing Stones
15km Carman Muir Burial Chamber Chambered Cairn
15km Crookston Castle Castle
15km Pollock Ring Work Iron Age Fort; Hillfort
15km Garadh Ban Wood Chambered Cairn
15km Cameron Home Farm Chambered Cairn; Cup Mark
16km Corkerhill Golf Course Barrow
18km Craigston Wood Cup and Ring Carvings
19km Shantron Cup and Ring Marks
20km Deaconsbank Golf Course Cup and Ring Marks; Millstone Quarry; Dovecot
20km Rouken Glen Cup and Ring Marks
(NB: All distances are as-the-crow-flies. Lochs, mountains and beautiful winding roads will make it further. Sometimes much further.)