The ‘Spoons stone
- WORDSWORTH WORDSMITHY
- Sep 5, 2024
- 8 min read
“Why does that Wetherspoons have a drawing of a standing stone outside?” I asked incredulously a few months back during a visit to the soon-to-be levelled down (funded by levelling up money) Cumbernauld Antonine shopping centre. Soon followed by, “…and it is called The Carrick Stone!”. Little more encouragement was needed to go inside to, er, investigate, the schematic drawing of a lumpy standing stone on a wooden panel drawing me in.
Through information panels in the pub and a visit to canmore, I quickly established a real blind spot in my knowledge of North Lanarkshire archaeology – that there is a putative Roman altar stone in the new town of Cumbernauld. How did I not know this? I guess because it is ‘Roman’ but frankly a wee standing stone is a wee standing stone, and so I followed it up. And there must have been Iron Age folk about at the time who scratched their head upon seeing this stone. Surely the Empire could do better than that?
The Carrick Stone is a rather enigmatic lump of Roman Scotland, located currently (originally? perhaps not) on a ridge to the south of the Antonine Wall. However, there is some confusion as to whether monolith really was traditionally called this or not (certainly not by the Romans!) which matters as the name was a farm, and is now an area of Cumbernauld. Let’s not worry about whether it is Carrick Stone or Carrickstone please.
In the 1845 New Statistical Account, Watson notes the existence of the stone in the already so-named Carrickstone Farm that he thought looked like a Roman altar, although a story was also noted that it “has a hole in it, where, tradition says, Robert the Bruce planted his standard before the battle of Bannockburn”. It may be here that Watson was conflating two different stones as we will see.
The stone was documented in some detail by William Donelly towards the end of the 19th century. His short note was entitled:
NOTE OF A STONE ON THE MOOR NEAR DULLATUR, CALLED THE CARRICK STONE, SHAPED LIKE A ROMAN ALTAR, AND HAVING CUPS ON ITS UPPER SURFACE. WITH A DRAWING.
Here’s the drawing:
The stone was described by Donelly who was fixated with what he saw as large cupmarks on top which he felt meant the Roman attribution was dodgy. He repeated the Watson story about Bruce but also did some investigation into the farm name and found the confusion, the farm being named for a nearby large slab with CARRICK written on it, with records of the farm name going back to 1401. What we now call the Carrick Stone was generally known rather more mundanely as the standing stone or the Roman altar.
There is a later note in canmore from an OS fieldworker in 1957 suggesting that the letters CAR could be seen on the altar. But this additionally confusing observation was soon shut down: “This stone is a Roman Altar. The stone is now in a mutilated condition, and any original inscription has been obliterated. Its general shape, however, and such traces of mouldings as survive round its base and head show it to be undoubtedly Roman” (letter from Kenneth Steer dated December 1957 also quoted in canmore).
So far as I can tell there is no evidence to say that this is definitively a Roman altar stone although it is described as such by RCAHMS (1982) and is included on their excellent 2008 Antonine Wall map. Patricia Weeks, then Antonine Wall World Heritage Site Co-ordinator, added notes to canmore in 2017 to the effect that this was very likely Roman, but badly weathered.
“The Roman altar known as the Carrick Stone is one of the less well-known Roman sites in Scotland, but it is unusual in that it may still stand in its original location after nearly 2000 years, albeit in the surroundings of a housing estate”.
Certainly it is featured in the 2012 Roman national panel of Scotland’s Archaeological Research Framework. In section 4.5, Landscapes of Belief, it is noted that, “one altar is believed still to stand in its original position, offering remarkable opportunities for research – the Carrick Stane, sitting forlornly in a housing estate at Cumbernauld” and the proximity of both Antonine Wall and the Roman forts at Westerwood and Castlecary is useful context. It is speculated in ScARF that this altar was once part of a temple, perhaps still waiting to be found. (See here for loads more great AW content.)
Personally the surrounding houses and water storage towers that bothered the writers quoted above only added to the allure for me, and so I embarked on a campaign of fieldwork that involved visiting the actual Carrick Stone, followed by another visit for lunch and a pint at the Carrick Stone pub.
I parked nearby in the drizzle and tried to orientate myself, quickly coming across a sign on the path to the stone suggesting this track followed a 2000 year old route, the Via Pavii. (Latin for paved road.)
Within a minute I was there, and frankly it was an underwhelming experience.
There it was, all stumpy and lumpy, a stone rottweiler of a megalith, squatting in the grass and for all I know disobeying dog toilet instructions stuck onto a nearby lamppost. The overgrown grass, victim of council cutbacks by not being cut back, caressed its grey sides in the light breeze, and nettles stood guard. I straddled over the fence, laid my hands on the cratered but smooth top surface, and squatted to examine the side carvings or lack thereof. My ankles and knees were lightly dampened by the experience.
Indeed the urban setting and the fence dampened down the impact of this stone, but upon turning round things started to get interesting.
Looming over the stone was one of two water towers on this hill, amidst the housing and a network of roads and paths, propped up on concrete legs that I could not see but I knew were there. These towers have always struck me as looking like abandoned alien spacecraft. Via Pavii indeed.
I am not the only one to be bemused by the experience of visiting this site so it seems. The Carrick Stone has one of the most amusing TripAdvisor pages I have seen with two spoof 5 star reviews posted several years apart. Someone even created a comedy user name (Walter Stone) simply to post a nonsensical review.
Perhaps this is a stone that simply attracts derision, even if it is clear there is a lot of local concern for the monument, with ongoing complaints about the lack of grass cutting at the site, and it was locals and the local council that got the informative noticeboard erected in the recent past – including in Gaelic (but not Latin).
That past visitors took chips away as souvenirs may explain its weird form, but also offers a point of comparison with Stonehenge.
I am also interested in the evolution of the presentation of this stone: caged megaliths tend to have interesting modern biographies in relation to attempts to present them to the public and, to an extent, protect them from visitors. This monument is no exception!
The next part of the trip was lunch and a pint of brown stuff at the actual Carrick Stone pub, one of the Wetherspoons chain. Say what you want about this much maligned brand, but they usually have good historical detail in the websites for each pub, and this one is no different. As I had seen on my first visit, inside the pub there are also some information panels, in a kind of scrapbook form, that historically contextualise the locality and the Carrick Stone itself.
Even before entering, of course, there is the stylised and oversized drawing of the stone itself, black on wood, pictured above, but there is also a plaque on the wall beside a second entrance which explains the name of the ‘free house’ a little, and repeats the Bruce connection.
Inside the Bruce story is depicted to the maxium(us) effect, with two panels focusing on Bruce and the Battle of Bannockburn. (Why would Bruce have been in Cumbernauld just before that famous 1314 battle!? As it happens we went there for lunch at more like 1414.)
I love this one – the random Roman distance slab in the corner, assorted images of the Bruce and the battle, and the curious suggestion he beat the ‘British’ on that day.
The next image, hidden in a darker corner (and cursed by a Home Bargains reflection), focuses on Bannockburn again, and some ornate script on a drawing of a parchment repeats the connection between the Carrick Stone, Bruce’s big stick, and the battle, depicted in drawing format with Stirling Castle perched in the corner.
The Carrick Stone is an ancient monument standing in what is known as the new town of Carrickstone. This is where according to local tradition, Robert the Bruce planted his standard before the Battle of Bannockburn.
And there is Bruce again on my menu!!
The best has been saved to last, a really nice panel that focuses on the Antonine Wall, which is great to see, especially if you were to sit on one of the stools about 3 inches from it.
The Ant wall is shown in map form. Tick. An old school Historic Scotland sign is included. Tick. There is even an image of the famous lilia at Rough Castle fort near Bonnybridge. Tick and smiley face. The text is even OK if in a wonky font. But what on earth are all of the other stone buildings depicted here? The Antonine Wall is not actually a stone wall as I never tire of telling my students. But the whole effect is rather pleasing.
The sad thing is that this was something of a building at risk survey, as the shopping mall within which this pub is located is to be bulldozed, I assume with the free house, the Wetherspoons’ carpet, and all those lovely signs now counting down the days until they go the way of the Empire. And there are other nice things in here – poems, references to local public art, photos of old Cumbernauld village. Not so much the toilets though. On borrowed time.
The 2022 decision by HES not to List the famous brutalist shopping centre was probably one nail in the coffin, loved by architects and hated by anyone who doesn’t like buildings that look like they came from the sets of a Soviet science fiction film.
And also under threat is an endearing bit of almost hidden urban prehistory that I have photographed every time I have walked past it over the last few years, usually while lost in the maze of corridors and stairwells in this part of the mall.
Demolition will happen within 10 years (according to the Council) so you have not got long to explore the shopping mall, the Via Pavii, and the pub! I can recommend all three experiences….
Sources and acknowledgments: thanks to Jan as usual for accompanying me on the fieldwork for this blog and ordering food using the app on her phone due to Wifi problems at my end.
Donelly, W A. 1897 Note of a stone on the moor near Dullatur, called the Carrick Stone, shaped like a Roman altar, and having cups on its upper surface, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 31, 1896-7, Pages 228-30. Download here.
RCAHMS 1982 The archaeological sites and monuments of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth District and Strathkelvin District, Strathclyde Region, The archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series no 2. Revision. Edinburgh. Page: 8, No.12
