Auld Wives Lifts
Milngavie, Stirling
Carved Stone; Celtic Heads Canmore
Also known as Auld Wives Lift; Craigmaddie Muir

High on Craigmaddie Muir is a natural amphitheatre in the peat bog. Within that bowl are a pair of very large boulders with a third balanced on top. It looks not unlike a burial chamber with the capstone still on top, but it was almost certainly left this way by a glacier.

The stones are full of graffiti from the last 200 years. Footholds have been carved into one corner making it relatively easy to access the top of the pile. But perhaps most interesting are the heads which have been carved into the rock.

Some of these look relatively modern. And whilst it's not possible to date the carvings, some of them look much older and are in a classic Celtic style perhaps dating to the Iron Age. Celtic heads are often associated with water - and today this is one of the wettest parts of a boggy location. Waterproof footwear recommended!

Images ©2018 Martin McCarthy, Theasis Photography

Nearby Sites

3km Broadgate Farm Standing Stone
3km Strathblane Parish Church Standing Stone
5km Bearsden Bathhouse Roman Fort
6km Blanefield Standing Stones; Cairn
6km Craigenkirn Long Cairn? Modern Ruin? A combination?
7km Whitehill Cup and Ring Marks
10km Waterhead Standing Stones
11km Fintry Standing Stone
11km Stockie Muir Chambered Cairn
14km Crookston Castle Castle
14km Pollock Ring Work Iron Age Fort; Hillfort
15km Corkerhill Golf Course Barrow
18km Deaconsbank Golf Course Cup and Ring Marks; Millstone Quarry; Dovecot
19km Rouken Glen Cup and Ring Marks
19km St. Maha's Well Standing Stone; Well
20km Craigston Wood Cup and Ring Carvings
20km Bothwell Castle Castle
20km Garadh Ban Wood Chambered Cairn
(NB: All distances are as-the-crow-flies. Lochs, mountains and beautiful winding roads will make it further. Sometimes much further.)