Kilbride 11

Explorer Tom Six stones stand in two lines on the floor of Kilmartin Glen, looking as if a prehistoric committee began arranging them then wandered off without explaining. This is Ballymeanoch: four stones in one row, two in a parallel row, and carved marks worth a slow look. Historic Environment Scotland records that the row of four is graded in height, with the largest at the south-east end. Two of those uprights carry cup marks and cup-and-ring designs. One has at least seventy cups and thirteen ringed motifs, some with small channels cutting through the rings. A seventh stone once stood apart from the pair but has been removed, while another fallen stone was identified partly buried nearby. So six stand today, though more were placed here. About a hundred metres south is a low henge, an earthwork of bank and ditch with opposite entrances. Its own record suggests the northern entrance and standing stones were deliberately set in relation to each other, though the builders left no handy note saying why. Two stone burial chambers survive within that henge. The standing stones, henge and nearby cairns belong to the prehistoric spread across the glen; the mystery is real, and Tom's imagined committee has no minutes to produce. The Prehistoric Society describes free public access under a landowner agreement from the Dunchraigaig cairn car park, south of Kilmartin. Kilmartin Museum's visitor map marks the same monument walk. Cross fields responsibly, mind livestock and leave the carved stones untouched. Bring time for the nearby cairn too: Ballymeanoch works best as one chapter in a very old landscape.