Tag Archives: megaliths

2001.68.1

A’ Charragh Bhiorach at Balinoe

Photograph of the standing stone at Balinoe in 2000.

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Numerous remains from the Bronze Age (2500 – 600 BC) have been found on Tiree and it is probable that the people who left them were the first to occupy the island in any numbers. These early farmers were using metal for the first time and making pottery with turned out rims known as ‘Beakers’.

New religious customs appeared. The dead were buried sitting upright in cists or cremated and the ashes put in funerary urns. Hollowed out cup markings were fashioned on significant rocks and standing stones and stone circles were erected.

The standing stone at Balinoe, 3.6 metres high with a base 1.9 metres by 1.1 metres, is known locally as A’ Charragh Bhiorach (the pointed stone). It must be remembered that this is not the original name as Gaelic came to be spoken here 3,000 years after it was erected.

Colour photograph of A` Charragh Bhiorach at Balinoe in 2000.

Standing stone at Balinoe known as A’ Charragh Bhiorach, the sharp pillar, or Spitheag an Fhoimheir, chip of the giant, photographed by Dr John Holliday in 2000.