Kensaleyre Standing Stones, Skye

Kensaleyre Standing Stones

A pair of ancient stones stand by the shore of Loch Eyre at Kensaleyre, south of Uig, on the north-west coast of the Isle of Skye. The stones are 13 feet 6 inches apart, and stand 10 feet from the edge of a bluff dropping down 20 feet to the shore of Loch Eyre.

The standing stones from the roadside

The north stone is four-sided and stands 5 feet 6 inches high. The south stone is irregular in shape and slightly taller at 5 feet 8 inches high (both roughly 1.5 metres). The south stone is tapered towards the top, with a diagonal projection running from one side to the other.

There seems to be very little information about the origin of the stones; even the normally informative Historic Environment Scotland's Canmore site does not give any information about the date of the stones. It seems fair to suggest that the probably date to the Bronze Age, or possibly slightly earlier.

The most interesting feature of the Kensaleyre stones, apart from their superb location by the loch, is the story told about them in Skye folklore.

The stones are also known by their Gaelic name Sornaichean Coir' Fhinn. The name relates to an old legend that the mythical warrior Finn, or Fingal, and his band of hunters used the stones to suspend a cooking pot over a fire. The pot was so large that it held a whole deer, which Fingal used to make venison stew.

The south stone

The legend also says that there were originally three stones, which tallies with the theory that the pair of stones once formed part of a stone row, or alignment, running NNW to SSE. For this reason, the stones are sometimes called the Eyre Alignment.

The remains of two burial cairns can be seen nearby.

There are several more ancient stones and burial sites in the area including a burial cairn with kerbstones on the north side of the A87, and several other standing stones, but the pair at Kensaleyre are both the easiest to reach and the most impressive.

Visiting

The stones are easy to spot off the A87 between Kensaleyre and Eyre. Unfortunately, parking is non-existent. I managed to pull off the road by some houses further north along the road and walk back to the stones. The stones are in a farm field, at the very edge of the shore, and there is a gate giving access to the field. The stones are not signposted but are so easy to spot from the road that you really can't miss them.