31668: SHILTENISH, LEWIS – STANDING STONE (Modern – 1901 AD to 2050 AD)

Summary:

STANDING STONE (Modern – 1901 AD to 2050 AD)
Modern standing stone

Location:

NB 282 192

Full description:

NB21NE 4 282 192.

A holed standing stone about 1.5m tall, on W end of "island" between old road and new road, was blasted from bedrock and erected during road building this year. It is a nicely shaped "megalith", carefully erected. In a few years time, when the new road has blended with the landscape and the stone becomes lichen-covered, it could easily be taken for a prehistoric stone.
G Ponting and M Ponting 1981.

"This single standing stone sits in the fork of the modern road from Balallen to Pairc and the remnants of the earlier 20th century single track road on the same route. It measures 0.3 metres x 0.2 metres, and is 1.2 metres tall, slightly broader at its head than at its base. Its location on the edge of the Township of Sildinis might suggest that it has been positioned or re-erected in recent times and that its current location is therefore not one established in antiquity. There is, however, no specific evidence to support such a supposition." Part of a ritual landscape. "Including the stone circle and setting on Cnoc nan Clach and the standing stone at Sildonis (NB21NE04) this landscape seems to dominate the slopes above the south-western end of the sea loch – Loch Erisort. Other elements might include the spring or well (5.4) located in the valley immediately to the west of Cnoc nan Clach and the chambered cairn located ca 1000 metres to the south of the burn that runs past its west side (5.5)." (Burgess 2004, 19 and 21)

References:

1981. ‘Shiltenish (Lochs p) standing stone (modern)’, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland. 50
Chris Burgess, Northamptonshire Archaeology. 2004. Northamptonshire Archaeology Archaeological Survey and Evaluation of Eilean Chalium Chille and the Putative Site of the Seaforth Head Castle. Part No Loch Seaforth Head Gazeteer.

Acknowledgement:

Information provided by Western Isles Council Sites & Monuments Record, January 2006.