Auchencar Standing Stone Traditional Cache
Professor Xavier: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am archiving it. Please note that as this cache has now been archived by a reviewer or HQ staff it cannot be unarchived.
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Ed
Professor Xavier - Volunteer UK Reviewer
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Auchencar Standing Stone
This cache is a 285 ml container with logbook and pen.
The Auchencar standing stone also known as the ‘Druid Stone.’
Situated in a large field off the access road for Auchencar, The ‘Druid Stone’ is the tallest standing stone on the Isle of Arran. The stone itself is a blade of rock, which looks tall and broad from one side yet tall and narrow from the other. Its isolation in a broad field removed from habitation yet within view of the mountains adds to the impressiveness. The broken remains of a similar stone lie embedded in the grass alongside.’
This stone is similar to the red sandstone circles found at Machrie Moor.
Aubrey Burl identifies a possible source for these stones at Auchencar, which is 5 km to the north of Machrie Moor. If this is the site of the quarry for the Machrie Moor stones, was this particular stone some sort of marker.
Park beside the Main road. Make your way up the single track road to the style.
Waypoint Ref: PK4K61B Start of the path and Parking N 55 34.280 W 005 20.956
Waypoint Ref: R14K61B Style N 55 34.404W 005 20.858
Waypoint Ref: SS4K61B The Druid Stone N 55 34.490 W 005 20.864
There’s a very old, very little known tale connected with the Thompson Clan Four brothers and five sisters lived on a beautiful bay in the island of Arran at Machrie. The sisters do not feature in this tale as they all lived very long lives.
The bay at Machrie was famous for it’s beauty, and has always been quite a tourist attraction. The familly lived on a small farming homestead called ‘Auchencar’ situated at the north of the bay.
‘Auchencar’ has been lived in and worked as a farm by the Thompson Familly since the 1760s. Due to the land being so fertile the area has been farmed since the mid fifteenth century, at one point homing more than 30 farms in this one area. The word ”Auchencar’ means ‘field of stones’, because of the large ancient bolders that littered the site. One if these bolders still stands today, an imposing monolith on the landscape known as ‘The Druid’s Stone’.
These stones were locally called ‘cists’ which is an archaelogical term for a box-shaped buriel chamber either made from a stone slab or hollowed out tree trunk. The area was believed to have been an ancient cemetry of some kind from the Pagan days. A time when White robed priests held the authority over the land citing themselves as mystical messengers..
According to records several of these ‘cists’ were removed during the ploughing of the fields in the late 1890s. The Thompson brothers wanted to make the most of their fertile land. An unusual method was used to remove these stones, they were blown up! Three of the Thompson brothers were involved in the explosions – Donald, John and Alex. The brothers were accompanied by two cousins, who helped clear the land.
An elderley man living in a nearby cottage reputed to have second site angrily predicted that “These Thompsons will never have any luck because they are now cursed!”. This of course became known as ‘The Thompson’s Curse’. The two cousins emigrated to America, seeking out the riches of the new world. They ended up in Nevada where they found work in a mine. But the curse found them and an explosion down the mine resulted in both men being killed outright. The brother – Alex Thompson went off to sea, but alas a sailing accident caused him to loose both of his hands in 1904, he was only 24.
Locals whisper this tale, not liking to speak it out loud for fear the curse will find them.
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PBEARE.
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