Stone Circles

On the Isle of Bute

*this is too long for the email, please read the entire post on the Substack website or on the app*

I’ve written a lot about the Isle of Bute in my past newsletters. It’s a place that has a lot of meaning for me. Some of my recent ancestors were born there, and I’ve been lucky enough to visit the island several times.

When I went in 2019, it was just after a violent storm. Tree branches were down all around the small, winding roads. Margaret, the charming woman whose Airbnb I’d booked for a night, picked me up at the ferry terminal, and she told me that people on the island often scavenged the wood from storm-felled tree branches to burn in their homes.

After I took my things up to my room, I went exploring. Margaret lived in the old manse at the time, very near St Colmac Cottages Stone Circle, which I had read about, but never seen.

The tree and the stone, 2019.

A little path parallels the road, and I walked along this till I could see the stone circle, guarded by one lone tree, in the middle of a field. I set off, and the field was very soggy, water-logged from the recent storm. My shoes soon became wet and muddy.