Torhouse
Encyclopedia
Wigtown
Wigtown is a town and former royal burgh in the Machars of Galloway in the south west of Scotland. It lies south of Newton Stewart and east of Stranraer. It has a population of about 1,000...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
They are set on their ends with three larger stones placed in a line in the middle. This is the only stone circle of its type in the Machars
Machars
The Machars is a peninsula in Galloway in the south-west of Scotland. The word is derived from the Gaelic word Machair meaning low lying or level land, known as "links" on the east coast of Scotland...
area and is of a type more akin to those found in northeast Scotland or southwest Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The site is on slightly raised ground and is one of the best preserved of its kind in Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. It has never been excavated, although having been used as a dumping ground for stones from neighbouring fields, it was cleared in 1929.
The diameter of the circle is between 61 and 66 feet, and the stones lie at distances of between 5 and 11 feet from one another on the perimeter. The stones on the west side are smaller and are more closely grouped than those on the east.
The three boulders on the interior of the circle (an unusual feature in stone circles) comprise one comparatively small stone in the centre flanked by two greater stones. The central stone is slightly tilted and is 2 feet 10 inches tall. Its two neighbours measure 3 feet 4 inches and 3 feet 9 inches. The direction of the line of the three central stones is northeast to southwest.
Although the standing stones are assumed to be a Druid
Druid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
Circle (a temple or court of justice), local tradition maintains that it is the site of King Galdus's Tomb. Galdus is believed to have fought off the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in A.D 80 and is credited as being the source of the county name Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
(although place-name scholars have widely discredited this). The central stones are supposed to mark his actual burial place. The three standing stones to the north of the road supposedly mark the burial sites of three of Galdus's generals who died with him in battle. Nearby are several cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
s which it is believed mark the burial place of his common soldiers.
In the dyke near the stone circle is a stone with a deep cavity which, in ancient tradition, "the knowing never pass without depositing a stone or pebble therein, as a gift to pass in peace".
The Torhouse Stones are in the care of Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...
.