Site Report

WoSASPIN 590
NM45SW 5 4359 5305.

(NM 4359 5305) Standing Stones (NR)
OS 1:10000 map (1976)

Stone Circle (NR)
OS 6" map (1900)

Listed by Burl as a stone circle among those 'of uncertain status, including misidentified sites'.
H A W Burl 1977; A Thom 1967

Standing Stones, Maol Mor, Dervaig: In a clearing in forestry on the level top of the broad ridge of Maol Mor, and immediately to the S of the isolated rocky summit, there is a linear setting of four stones extending from NNW to SSE over a distance of 10.4m.
Stone A on plan is prone and measures 2.45m in length, 0.85m in
breadth, and 0.5m in thickness; part of the base has been broken off. Stone B, measuring 2.1m in height and 0.9m by 0.6m at the base, rises with straightish sides to a rounded top.
Stone C measures 2.2m in height and 1m by 0.7m at the base; the lower half of the S side exhibits a marked triangular projection, after which the stone tapers to a pointed top.
Stone D measures 2.1m in height and 1.2m by 0.85m at the base; it tapers to a flattish top.
RCAHMS 1980, visited 1972

These four stones were in a similar condition to that described by the RCAHMS when seen in April 1972. They are not the remains of a stone circle.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (RD) 27 April 1972.

This alignment of four standing stones is set along a NNW / SSE axis on a level terrace of open moorland, densely grown with molinia, just to the SE of the rocky whaleback summit of Mao1 Mor. Three of the standing stones are vertical, but the most northerly one is recumbent; the three uprights are all about the same height, just over 2m tall, while the recumbent is about 2.5m long: it seem likely that the recumbent, if set upnght would have stood around the same height as the other three stones. They are spread along a line about 10.5m long, and are set towards the SE edge of a 3.5 ha clearing within maturing conifer plantation. The ground immediately round the group of 4 stones (1 recumbent, 3 standmg) has previously been planted and felled out, but not subsequently restocked. Existmg trees here are well enough away from the scheduled area to be also clear of the 20m buffer zone. There is now some regen appearing, mostly lodgepole pine, dotted across the clearing. There is also some bracken, predominantly along the base of Maol Mor and in the NNW corner of the clearing. There is quite significant poaching around the base of the N and middle standing stones; a ditch about 0.25m wide and a little over ankle deep has been trodden round the stones by red deer. While there has always been some evidence of deer around the area, I have not previously seen these standmg stones as poached.

The footpath from the Cnoc Fada alignment of standing stones (AMH/4364), which lies 1km SSE, is no longer waymarked or maintained, so access on this occasion was from the forest road to the NNW of Mao1 Mor and was somewhat fraught. However, it did result in the discovery of a clutch of shielings and tiny enclosures tucked in along the foot of the E face of Mao1 Mor's ridge. One of the shielings is quite complex with four compartents arrayed clover-leaf fashion around a massive boulder. The NMRS entry is NM45NW14 and identifies the site as 'cairn: ring (possible); shieling-hut' - this scarcely does justice to the complexity of this little settlement. After a good deal of flailing around, a feasible new access route for members of the public to the standing stones was identified.
Clark, S., 28/02/08
Entered WoSAS (MO'H) 13/03/2008