Fowlis Wester
Stone Circles
NN 923 249
Return to the A85 and head on to Perth. After about 3 miles turn left where it is signed Fowlis Wester. Go past the church and continue uphill out of the village. Bend sharply to the left and continue and when you pass the trees on the left look for a wide gate on the left where there is room to park. You can see the standing stone in the distance from here.
The eastern circle
The site consists of a ring cairn with a few remaining stones in the outer circle, a fallen stone circle and two standing stones, one of them fallen. The eastern circle had 12 stones but we could only see 4 around it now. It is just over 8m diameter and inside it is a small kerb cairn about 5.5m diameter. There are a couple of cupmarks on the inside of the SSW kerbstone near the grass level. 11m to the NE is a 6ft (1.8m) standing stone.
The eastern circle and standing stone
Just 18m to the WNW is the 2nd circle that is just 6.7m diameter where all the stones have fallen. There are 11 stones, some of them are quite large and there is a very large fallen outlier beside it that is 9ft (2.7m) long. To the SW of this circle there appear to be 3 cupmarks in the approximate same position as the other circle.
The west circle and fallen outlier
The fallen stones of the west circle
Approaching rainclouds
Pictish Stones
In the small church here there are two Pictish stones on display. One is a tall pillar about 11ft (3.3m) high with an interlaced cross on one side and Pictish symbols on the other. A copy is outside by the road. A second smaller stone was found when the church was restored in 1927 and this is very well preserved as it had been built into the wall and has survived weathering. It is about 5ft (1.5m) high and has detailed carving on it including two mythical beasts above the cross. They date back to the 8th or 9th centuries.
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