The Standing Stones of Torhouse (also Torhousekie) are a stone circle of nineteen granite boulders on the land of Torhouse, three miles west of Wigtown, Scotland.
Description
The stone circle consists of nineteen granite boulders set on a slightly raised platform.[1] The stones have a height ranging from about 0.6 metres to 1.5 metres and are arranged in a circle with a diameter of about 22 metres.[1] The larger stones, over 1 metre high, are on the southeast side.[2]
Three upright boulders stand in a line near the centre of the circle.[3] The direction of the line of the three central stones is northeast to southwest.[1]
Two stones stand 40 metres to the south-southeast of the stone circle, one large and the other small, and there is a stone row of three stones 130 metres to the east.[2] There are also surviving remains of several burial cairns, and history records others long removed to build field dykes.[2]
The stone circle has not yet been archaeologically excavated. It probably dates to the Neolithic period or the Bronze Age.[1][2] The Torhouse Stones are in the care of Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.[2]
In folklore
Local tradition maintains that the three large stones in the center of the circle contained the tomb of Galdus, a mythical Scottish king.[2][4] A similar story is told about one of the tombs at Cairnholy, also in Galloway.[5]
In the dyke on the south side of the road is a stone with a deep cavity which according to tradition, "the knowing never pass without depositing therein some pebble or gift to pass in peace".[6]
