Letter from Dr. Wm. Meade. 159 



slate. I am not aware that any rock of the same nature 

 exists much nearer to it than seven miles. Its present situa- 

 tion is on the sands in the Uttle bay near Castle Stuart on 

 the Mercey Firth. Its size is very considerable, being as 

 near as I could guess above four feet high at its most eleva- 

 ted point, calculating from the surface of the sand and be- 

 ing to all appearance about one foot imbedded in it. It 

 measures between four and six feet one way by six or seven 

 the other; its shape, which is very particular, is peculiarly 

 well adapted to admit of the mode of transportation, it 

 underwent, as it had a projecting edge, all round it, the low- 

 er edge of which, is above a foot of perpendicular height 

 from the surface of the sand, and from this edge downwards, 

 the stone is suddenly bevilled off in a form resembling 

 that part of the bottom of a boat which is under the belly 

 and approaching the keel. On as near a calculation as 1 

 can make, it may weigh about eight tons. 



This large mass is remarkable for having been removed 

 from a situation which it formerly occupied, about 260 yards 

 farther to the S. S. E. by natural means, and in the course 

 of one night to the position where it now stands. It had 

 formerly served as a boundary stone between the proper- 

 ties of Castle Stuart and Culloden, the former belonging to 

 the Earl of Moray and the latter to Duncan Forbes, Esq. 

 As it is too ponderous to have been moved by human pow- 

 er, at least in that part of the country, it must have been 

 originally deposited in that its first place of rest, by causes 

 similar to those which have covered whole countries with 

 boulders, the nature of which bespeaks their having be- 

 longed to recks no where existing in situ in their entire 

 and native state, in the vicinity of their present place of 

 abode. The stranger scarcely recognizes the spot from 

 which it was last removed, it being marked by a wooden 

 post which the two contiguous proprietors were under the 

 necessity of erecting in order to supply the place of the 

 stone, and to serve as an object for defining its line of 

 march. At a tishing village situated above a mile to 

 the westward of the stone, I learned several particulars 

 with respect to its extraordinary migration. But it was 

 recommended to me to call on the m'ller of Fitly for 

 a fuller detail of the facts, who, living much nearer the 

 stone, and having it constantly in view for a series of years, 

 not only recollected every circumstance about it, but was 



