Balbirnie Stone Circle, Fife, Scotland

Balbirnie Stones board

After visiting so many Neolithic standing stones and cairns when we were in Orkney I thought it was about time I did another short blogpost about the local ones near me in Fife, the Balbirnie Stone Circle.

Balbirnie Stones

I did blog about them donkey’s years ago and of course they don’t change although they now have a new and legible information board. There was evidence of 16 cremation burials as well as a flint knife, a jet button and beads and a complete food container when the area was excavated.

Balbirnie Stones

The powers that be decided to move this stone circle when a nearby road was being upgraded – which is truly sacrilegious, but at least they re-arranged them as they had been originally. They are now 125 metres to the south-east of their original location.

Balbirnie Standing Stones 3

There’s a burn nearby and I presume that that is why people settled in this area over 2,000 years BC. I must admit that I like to think of families living and working here all those years ago.

9 thoughts on “Balbirnie Stone Circle, Fife, Scotland

  1. Disappointing that the stones could not be left undisturbed by the road reconstruction – I wonder if the “spirit of place” that presumably determined their original location is evoked in the same way in their present site.
    As always with these ancient sites, it’s extraordinary to think of the careful work that was done, for motives we can only guess at, so long ago.

    • Valerie,
      I think they chose the original location because it was between two small burns/streams and now it is just close to one of them, it’s still a lovely location but presumably wouldn’t have been deemed as magical or special.

  2. If I had been a worker who had to move the stones, I would have refused. It can’t be good to tamper with the gods! I wonder if there are curses on all the people involved, like King Tut’s tomb?

  3. Thanks for coming by to comment on the latest post, I’m glad we share a love of Three Pines.

    Great pictures here. I’m sure it is just how I as an American see things only through the lens of film, television and youtube videos, but the greens of the grass and trees and moss, etc. in England, Ireland and Scotland always seem so much richer and more magical than they do here. I long to visit those places just to wander the countryside.

    • Carl V. Anderson,

      Thanks for dropping by.

      Of course I am biased and think that Scotland is far superior to England and Ireland! I suppose it’s the rain that makes everything so green here, for us it’s just normal of course. If you do intend to visit Scotland you should make sure you do it while you are fit enough to deal with the hills in the countryside and towns. Edinburgh is a very hilly city.

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