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Cateran Ecomuseum

Macbeth’s Stone

The largest Standing Stone in the Ecomuseum.

This giant of a stone measures about 12 ft high and stands on a large, low mound. Probably late Neolithic or early Bronze age ( (c 3,000 – c 2,100 BC),  it is linked to the Scottish King Macbeth (c1005-1057).

Also called Siward’s Stone (the traditional site of the Battle of Dunsinane (1054), where Siward, Earl of Northumbria defeated Macbeth lies around 10 miles west of the stone in the Sidlaws) and the Witches’ Stone it was first recorded in more recent history by Thomas Pennant, the Welsh naturalist, traveller and antiquarian, writing in 1776:

 “In a field on the other side of the house is another monument to a hero of that day, to the memory of the brave young Seward, who fell, slain on the spot by MacBeth.  A stupendous stone marks the place; twelve feet high above ground, and eighteen feet and a half in girth in the thickest place.  The quantity below the surface of the Earth is only two feet eight inches; the weight. on accurate computation amounts to twenty tons; yet I have been assured that no stone of this species is to be found within twenty miles.”
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