Congratulations to husband and wife team Ritchie and Lorna Conaghan who have probably rediscovered the Peden Stone near Auchensoul Hill.
Reproduced by the kind permission of Ritchie and Lorna Conaghan.
Over a year ago, I posted on the mystery of the missing Peden Stone near Barr in Carrick.
Over a century ago the stone was described as
‘About 6½ miles from Girvan, and 1½ from Barr village, there stands on a hillside, near the Lane Toll, a large whin boulder which goes under the name of Peden’s Stone, as marking the site of one of his conventicles. This stone is 5 feet in height and 15 [feet] in circumference, and looks down on the Stinchar valley in front, with Auchensole hill on the immediate right, and Shalloch-on-Minnoch on the remote left.’
At some point after that, It was ‘lost’ to history.
A few days ago, I received compelling evidence from Ritchie and Lorna that the stone may have been identified. From the photographs they sent, the stone they found certainly fits the descriptions of the large boulder from over a century ago.
The stone is located at 55°13’26.1″N 4°43’26.2″W or 55.223930, -4.723950
The stone is probably the white dot in the middle of the following aerial views.
Map of the Peden Stone near the Pingerrach Burn
Aerial View of the Peden Stone near the Pingerrach Burn
Here are the photos.
A distinctive whinstone overlooking the Pingerrach Burn running into the Stinchar valley…
Reproduced by the kind permission of Lorna and Ritchie Conaghan.
Ritchie on stone with Auchensoul Hill on the right and Shalloch on Minnoch in the distance off to the left across the Stinchar valley.
Reproduced by the kind permission of Ritchie and Lorna Conaghan.
Lorna sitting on the Peden Stone taken from the small natural amphitheatre below….
Reproduced by the kind permission of Lorna and Ritchie Conaghan.
The stone sits on the edge of the valley of the Pingerrach Burn. It is also to the east of the ‘Lane Toll’, the place where is was said to be near over a century ago.
Reproduced by the kind permission of Ritchie and Lorna and Conaghan.
It located just downstream from the waterfalls of the Pingerrach Burn on the western rim of the valley.
Reproduced by the kind permission of Lorna and Ritchie Conaghan.
Pingerrach was the home of John MacJarrow, a laird forfeited for his part in the Bothwell Rising of 1679. Only the trees from around the farm remain to mark where Pingerrach once lay, which is a short way down the burn from the site of the Peden Stone.
Alexander Peden is said to have preached at night at Pingerrach in the summer of 1685. The lady of the house is said to have betrayed his presence there to the authorities.
The rediscovery of the Peden Stone is an excellent piece of field work by Lorna and Ritchie. Really, very well done!
The Peden Stone was one of the missing places in the “Prophet Peden Summer Challenge”, if any of you want to make history by finding some of the other ‘lost’ Peden locations.
Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved. Please link to this post on Facebook or retweet it, but do not reblog in FULL without the express permission of the author @drmarkjardine
Filed under: Alexander Peden, Ayrshire, Barr parish, Carrick, Covenanter Sites, Covenanters, John MacJarrow in Pingerroch, Peden's Stone (Auchensoul Hill), Pingerroch, Scotland, Scottish History Tagged: Alexander Peden, Ayrshire, Canmore, Covenanters, History, Peden Stone, RCAHMS, Royal Commission of Ancient and Historical Monuments Scotland, Scotland, Scottish History
