St Ninian's Bay Standing Stones, Bute

St Ninian's Bay Standing Stones

Standing on the low-lying shore at the northern edge of St Ninian's Bay, Bute, stand a pair of prehistoric standing stones. The stones are quite a bit smaller than other standing stones on Bute, such as Blackpark or Stravanan Bay.

The northern stone is 1m high, 0.46m wide and 0.16 thick (3.3 x 1.5 x 0.5 feet), and it tapers very obviously towards the top. The southern stone is slightly smaller at 0.85m high, 0.45m wide and 0.12m thick (2.8 x 1.5 x 0.4 feet). The stones are 1.1m apart (3.6 feet) - roughly the height of the northern stone.

Whether the fact that the distance is the same as the northern stone's height is a coincidence or intentional is, of course, something we will never know, but it does make you wonder!

The tapering northern stone

Getting There

The St Ninian's Bay Standing Stones are extremely easy to find. Take the dead-end minor road to Straad off the A844 and follow it to the end.

Beyond the cluster of buildings at Straad you will see a signposted trail leading along the edge of the bay, above the salt marshes, in the direction of St Ninian's Chapel. The standing stones are immediately beside the path, about 500m beyond Straad.

When we visited the site, the stones were protected by a wooden fenced enclosure, which did make photographing the stones a bit tricky, but more recent visitors have reported that the fence is now gone.

I highly recommend combining a visit to the stones with the longer walk to the early Christian site of St Ninian's Chapel on the tip of St Ninian's Point, roughly 500m further on.