In the Bathgate Hills next to Kipps farm, there is what is known to some as the Druids Temple.
To some people this may looks like a bunch of Glazier erratic’s, that have been thrown together. But these rocks have made it on to the early editions of maps:
The Druids’ Temple, comprises of 5 large stones, three for a base and two on the top. There are several large stones around this Temple, embedded in the ground, which are thought to have once formed a Druidical circle.
There is an old legend about the local druid splitting the capstone with a lightning bolt when the Romans threw him out and re-dedicated the site.
An alternative theory is that this is a collapsed dolmen. It consists of a series of upright stones with another sitting flat on top.
The cap stone on this one broke and collapsed inwards after many fires being lit under it.
Andrew Hendry explains that dolmens are a type of megalithic monument in which a capstone rests upon several uprights. In the few excavations carried out some human remains have been recovered but not in sufficient quantities to suggest they were tombs; they’re more akin to ‘foundation deposits’. Instead, these structures seem more about being visually impressive and perhaps attest to the importance of local elites who could organise the building of such a monument. There are grand examples such as Pentre Ifan in Wales but most tend to be less impressive.
It is highly likely however that ‘Kipps’ is NOT a dolmen. Dolmens are a class of Neolithic monument which are found in the British Isles in the 4th Millennium BC. They are largely confined to the areas around the Irish Sea, principally Ireland where they have their densest concentration, but also western Wales and south west England (where they are known as quoits). I’m not aware of any examples in Scotland, or north or central England.
Bathgate Hills is part of lowland Scotland where there is no tradition of chambered tomb building; that’s found in the west and north. In this area, Early Neolithic monuments tend to be constructed by pit/ditch digging, mound building or are timber built. Nearby examples are at Cowie near Stirling where there were two U-shaped pit enclosures, and at Balfarg Riding School, outside Glenrothes, where a timber enclosure (a suspected mortuary site) was constructed.
My own photographs/memory of Kipps Dolmen admittedly aren’t the best, nonetheless I don’t recall the ‘uprights’ being solidly bedded in, or regularly arranged, like typical dolmen sites. Indeed Audrey Henshall dismissed it as a dolmen when she inspected the site in the seventies; she believed it was an assemblage of glacial erratics.
As such, an isolated example of this monument-type existing so far off-piste, in a region with no megalithic tradition, strongly suggests that this is not a dolmen.
However, that is not to say the site is without local importance. Robert Sibbald who stayed at nearby Kipps Castle and credited with writing the first ‘proper’ history of the region in his ‘History of Linlithgow-shire’ (1711) mentioned it in relation to local betrothal rites.
An urn, possibly a cremation urn of Early/Middle Bronze Age date, was found ‘nearby’, and reported in 1877. The finding of the urn however is loosely described and is impossible to establish whether it was deposited in relation to Kipps. Certainly the use of the urn comes well over a thousand years after Dolmens stopped being built.
My own suspicion is that these boulders were cleared from the land and heaped together to facilitate farming in the area (a clearance cairn). This may have been done in antiquity or more recently (but prior to Robert Sibbald).
The site then attained a local significance (eg. betrothal rites) and has since been incorporated into the folklore of Bathgate Hills. This may explain why the low circular wall was respectfully built around it.
Of course without proper excavation it’s impossible to be certain, and even then …
040 Stones, Kipps Farm, Torphichen. |
Description
Said to be the remains of a Druid’s Temple where sacrifices were made in ancient times, being composed of 5 large stones suggestive of a cromlech and with numerous other stones around the base. While this romantic image would be preferable, in reality, the stones are probably just natural erratics or were placed there during field clearance but it would be nice if archaeological investigation would prove otherwise!
Directions
Kipps Farm can be found to the west of the road between Linlithgow and Bathgate, opposite Beecraigs Country Park.
Parking
Ask at the farm for permission to park.
Folklore
A local to the area that I met at Cairnpapple mentioned that courting couples who reach through the gap between the stones, may be granted good luck. However, this has not been substantiated and I wonder of they were having “that strange guy” on a bit.
Fieldnotes
I had spotted this jumble of stones on an earlier visit but was not sure if it was genuine or not as it looks suspiciously like a pile of boulders dumped from field clearance. The RCAHMS state the stones are natural, probably glacial erratics. Various writers have claimed the structure to be the remains of a Druids Temple, a stone circle, and a cromlech. I wonder?
Whilst given the alternative names of ‘cairn’ or ‘stone circle’, these stones are classed by Canmore as a natural feature – see their entry for Canmore ID 47920.
The original entry from the OS Name Book of 1857 classifies this as the remains of a Druid’s Temple, composed of five large stones. An updated from 1972 amends this to: “This feature, referred to as a cromlech by several authors writing last century, is described by the RCAHMS (1929) as appearing to be a huge ice-borne boulder which has been shattered. Other stones in the vicinity, once interpreted as a stone circle, are erratics.”
This stone is also featured on the Ancient Stones: A Guide to Standing Stones and Stone Circles in the South of Scotland – see their entry for Stones, Kipps Farm, Torphichen, which includes a description, directions for finding the stone with nearby parking, folklore and fieldnotes.