Lochmaben Stone
| The Lochmaben Stone | |
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The Lochmaben Stone from the south.
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| Coordinates | 54°59′02″N 3°04′34″W / 54.983875°N 3.076073°WCoordinates: 54°59′02″N 3°04′34″W / 54.983875°N 3.076073°W |
 Location of The Lochmaben Stone in Dumfries and Galloway
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The Lochmaben Stone (grid reference NY 3123 6600) is a megalith standing in a field, nearly a mile west of the Sark mouth on the Solway Firth, three hundred yards or so above high water mark on the farm of Old Graitney in Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland. The area is also known as Stormont. Together with a smaller stone it is all that is left of a stone circle dating back to around 3000BC.
The principal stone or megalith, referred to as the Lochmabonstone by Logan Mack in 1926, has, in the Borders context, an unsurpassed extent of history attached to it. It is an erratic, 7 feet high and 18 feet in girth and weighs approximately ten tons. It is composed of weathered granite, exposed to severe glacial action.
In these treeless flatlands this stone, given its size, would have been a distinctive landmark on the flat Solway Plain for several millennia.
The Lochmaben stone has had a wide range of names attached to it over the last few millennia or so. Lochmabonstone, Stormont, and Old Graitney stone are amongst the most recent. In 1398 the name is 'Clochmabenstane', in 1409 and 1472 the name 'Loumabanestane' is recorded, with 'Lowmabanstane' used in 1485 and then 'Loughmabanestane' in 1494.
The element Mabon, as in the Celtic god, is common to all of the variants and this strongly confirms this association, as well as helping with the identification of this site with the Roman site of 'Locus Maponi', as listed in the Ravenna Cosmography. It is also suggested that Locus Maponi means the 'Loch' or 'Pool' of Mabon and this would suggest that the town of Lochmaben is the intended named site.
Maporitum is another name recorded in the cosmography and given that the name relates to the Ford of Mabon and indeed the name 'Solway' is most likely derived from the word Sul standing for the pillar or Lochmaben stone and the word Wath that is of Viking origin and means to 'wade', indicating a ford.
The old Gaelic 'Cloch' element is found with the 1398 record 'Clockmabanstane' and this suggests that as in the modern Gaelic 'clach', meaning stone, the whole name may mean the 'stone or burial place of Mabon'. With the decline of Gaelic use in this area so close to England, the word 'Loch' has become appended, especially as the Lochmaben and the Loch of Maben are in the locality. The name Clackmannan is another example where the Gaelic word is undeniably linked with a stone, in this case still on view in the town centre.
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