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Stone, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. |
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Description
This massive egg-shaped stone is situated to the west of the
Iron Age hill fort on Dunsapie Hill in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh.
The stone is not marked on any known Ordnance Survey maps of the
area and no other information is available at present. A number
of other boulders of the same type can be seen, partly buried in
the immediate area and seem to be of local volcanic origin. The
stone measures 1.80m high and has a girth of almost 6.00m at
mid-height.
Direction
Holyrood Park
is located to the west of Edinburgh city centre. A city street
plan is recommended for finding this location. Once inside
Holyrood Park, follow the road in a clockwise direction for
Dunsapie Loch. Park in the small car park and walk round the
south side of Dunsapie hill. The stone is quite obvious.
Parking
Numerous car parking areas exist along the access roads within
the park.
Folklore
It
would appear strange that such a prominent stone in such as
famous location with a rich history should not have a few tales
or legends associated with it. One rather humorous suggestion
from a family member was that the stone might be called The
Giant's Testicle. How the giant came to loose it is another
matter entirely!
When
researching for information of ancient stones I came across a
reference on the Internet about a stone known as the Witches
Stone, that is believed to have once existed in King�s Park, Edinburgh.
Interestingly, the present-day Holyrood Park, while
un-officially known as the Queen�s Park was once called the
Kings Park.
As the story goes, women used to slide down the stone as part of
a ritual, in the belief that they would have increased
fertility. While there is now way of telling if the stone
documented here is the same stone, or that another stone was
involved, now destroyed, the possibility does exist never the
less.
Fieldnotes
I first saw this massive boulder in a fine art black &
white photograph. Wondering where it was, I showed the image to
my wife who then vanished upstairs and produced a photograph of
me sitting on the same stone some 14 years ago. The same day I
first asked her out after returning from a work secondment to
Saudi Arabia!
The stone is impressive and sits alone on the side of Dunsapie
Hill, to the east side of Holyrood Park,
itself ringed by an Iron Age hill fort. The stone is of the same
type of lava found elsewhere in the area and probably predates
the fort.
Returning
to obtain some measurements of the stone, I noticed a gap had
been left (recently?) in the stone wall to the east. This
brought to mind a similar gap found at Tweedsmuir in the
Scottish Borders and there may be some connection with
"fairy paths" where superstitious people where loath
to block the path of the fairies. See 056 for more information.
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