94 



but no marked change is produced. It is in excellent taste that the 

 striking geological features of this spot have been left untouched in 

 carrying out the improvements connected with the erection of the 

 school house. 



By the wayside here, where a sweep of the road gradually opens 

 to us one of the finest vie^s in Arran, there stands a huge upright 

 stone, marking, perhaps, (the s^o^Nwhere a chief was interred, or 

 where a leader fell in the^oM days of feud and warfare ; or may- 

 hap the scene of some decisive battle with the old Norse invaders. 

 Many such stones are found in the island, but their purpose and date 

 of erection are wholly matters of conjecture. There are several in 

 this immediate neighbourhood ; on the high ground south of Inver- 

 cloy, and on the plain of Glenshant, between the mouth of Glen Rosa 

 and the site of the old village of Brodick. A complete circle of such 

 stones formerly existed at the mouth of Glenshirag; it is briefly 

 noticed in Mr. Headrick's book; but not a vestige now remains; 

 in 1813 the stones were broken up and removed, to make way 

 for the operations of the plough. In 1836 a farmer, not less 

 gothic in his ideas, removed a double circle of such stones from the 

 farm of South Sannox, and used the materials in the erection of a 

 stone fence. A single pillar still remains in front of South Sannox 

 house. In most places where we examined these stones, we found 

 them to be coarse sandstone of the old red formation. As this does 

 not exist in many of the localities where the stones now stand, we 

 must conclude that mechanical appliances of great power were brought 

 to bear in their transport ; and therefore it is not wonderful that, in 

 a rude age, their erection was ascribed to the hands of giants. In 

 all ages the illiterate observe facts and phenomena with tolerable 

 accuracy ; but their explanations always introduce the marvellous or 

 the supernatural. The subject will be again referred to in our 

 notice of Tormore. 



63. There are two paths to the entrance of Glen Rosa ; we take 

 that which passes Brodick chapel, and crosses the opening of Glen- 



