Sourlie Hill

At the South East end of Eglinton Park are some standing stones. On Thursday night I saw that a new cache had been published near them, however it wasn't until this morning that I had a chance to get over there despite the fact I can almost see them from my front door.

The standing stones are well known in the area and lie to the side of a path with (on a nice day) great views over The Park, Irvine and Arran. Today the view wasn't so good as it was wet, cold and overcast. It's a common belief in the area that this is a genuine prehistoric monument, however this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact the stones were placed as recently as the late 1980's as part of the reclamation of the area which had been an opencast mine.

To many the hill is known as Cairnmount which is understandable as Cairnmount Road runs past them to meet the Lochlibo Road. In fact Cairnmount is the hill which rises from the Eastern end of Cairnmount Road and on which the Cairnmount Plantation was/is situated (also where the View Over Holehouse Farm is located). The standing stones are actually located on an a hill which was artificially created to replace Sourlie Hill which was in the location of the mine. The stones themselves were found during the reclamation works and were placed as a folly on the top.

This cache Cairnmount Stones is just off the top of Sourlie Hill and was an easy find despite the poor conditions.