Monument record MHG6788 - Tom Nan Carragh

Standing Stones (NR)
OS 6"map, Morayshire, 2nd ed., (1904)
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Report on the standing stones on Tom nan Carragh by S Law, 2002.
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BAS Local Plan, Sept. 1997: P35/4.10.2. Footpaths and Walks. Scope exists to promote routes to the standing stones and the Spey; Strathspey Railway and a possible "halt" serving the village.
J Aitken : 24/05/01.

Two standing stones each about 8ft high and supposed to be the remains of a Druidical Circle.
Name Book 1871.

Only one stone now remains standing; the other lies prone at its base. Both are roughly hewn. No trace of an associated stone circle or cairn. Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 7 September 1966.

80yds from this stone are two further stones in a shallow depression, one with cup-marks.
Information contained in letter from R J Stewart, Wester Rynabeallich, Cromdale, Grantown-on-Spey, to OS, 19 January 1986

The area around the base of the fallen stone was excavated with a view to re erecting the stone in its original position. A socket 0.7m across and 0.56m into the subsoil was excavated. The base of the megalith had been packed with stones up to 0.3m in diameter. Only the northern two thirds of the socket was excavated, as the base of the megalith overlay the rest. There were no finds.
Re-erection of the stone was abandoned after it was observed that the megalith had broken along both axes when it fell. The socket was filled with builders' sand and the area returfed.
R Pollock and D Scott 1988. <1>

Oram 1996 calls the site Ballintomb, Dulnain Bridge, and dates the stones to the Bronze Age.
In the later Middle Ages the site was the assembly place of the local courts, and the rallying-place of the Grants of Freuchie (Oram 1996).

Add to Bibliography:
Oram, Richard 1996. Moray and Badenoch. A Historical Guide, pp. 32-3 <2>

Douglas Scott has submitted photographs of a number of sites in this vicinity which are currently unrecorded. The photographs are linked to this record for now pending full identification of the features in question. <3>

The standing stones here were discussed in a paper by Douglas Scott in the Archaeoastronomy journal. Three stones from an alignment of six remain standing. Not all of the stones are intervisible, but combinations of the stones appear to be aligned on significant astronomical events. The full description in the article refers to a plan in which the stones are labelled A to F. The article cannot be made available online for copyright reasons, but is available at Highland Council HQ. The stones described in this particular record would appear to be stones C and D. <4>