Standing Stones and our history

Yesterday I had a long conversation with my younger sister who lives in Bristol, England.  She was talking about the rich history of Scotland and in particular that which is close to where I live.  Now just to set the scene, we all have history, and we all have ancestors but not everyone can trace theirs and I guess it can be like feeling rudderless in our individual histories.  For when all said and done, we are descendents of the first women and men in the world, if we were not we would not be here. My partner is of West Indian descent, I say West Indian but that is her recent history. Her ancestors were shipped from somewhere to the West Indies. Based on DNA, there is a mixture of cultures, mainly Nigerian with some Bantu from memory, but no obvious ancestral line, lost in the slave books. Her people (and many others) were not only robbed of their freedom but their history and heritage too. And yet so many of us take our ancestral histories for granted. 

Much to my surprise, my DNA I assumed would be predominantly Scots but it has a lot of Irish in it. And I am reminded of the old sign, and I paraphrase, "No blacks, dogs or irish!" How we view and treat others is no laughing matter. 

However, I digress, so after the discussion with my sister, at 7 o clock this beautiful frosty morning, I took my camera and got in the car and drove to Newbridge which is about 10 - 15 minutes away from where I live.

I went to visit two standing stones and an ancient burial mound.  It is hard to imagine, touching those ancient stones, all the history they have witnessed. I'll show the photos and then I'll cut and paste in the relevant information.

This is the larger of the two standing stones.

 The burial mound

 

The smaller stone

 

 

And finally the guardians of this rare historic site, they were up early and on patrol.  This is how serious we Scots are about our ancient history. :)

 

 

The following is from the Ratho and District Community website. If you are interested in learning more about that area, click here.

History

• This area was settled as long ago as the New Stone Age (5^th Century BC), with prolific remains having been discovered; as recently as 2001 the remains of an Iron Age chariot burial, (c450BC) were found near the Bronze Age burial mound of Huly Hill, at Newbridge.  The chariot was the first of its kind to be found in Scotland and shows Iron Age Scotland in direct contact with the European Continent.
• The Newbridge chariot was buried intact, a method consistent with the burial practices of Continental Europe rather than Yorkshire where the closest other example has been found.
• Ratho Station/Newbridge area has been the focus of
  intensive occupation for over 6000 years. The most obvious example is the nationally important monuments of Ratho Station standing stone and Huly Hill, an upstanding prehistoric burial mound and stone circle situated on and dominating the eastern side of Newbridge. This prehistoric monument, which is likely to date from the early 2nd millennium BC, was constructed within the centre of a stone circle which is thought to date from the earlier Neolithic period (3rd millennium BC).
• Recent excavations at Newbridge have provided new and direct evidence for the nature of this prehistoric occupation and later Roman and medieval occupation. The excavated remains included isolated prehistoric pits and post-holes, a post-defined enclosures, round–houses, a ring-ditch cemetery.   Excavations  have also revealed the remains of a Roman Road which may be linked to the Roman 2nd century AD milestone discovered in 1699 to the North of this site at Ingliston. A second Roman carved stone fragment (that of the body of a Roman Eagle) is incorporated within the fabric of the south gable of West Ingliston Farmstead.