The Standing Stanes of Lundin are three tall, unsculptured, irregularly shaped pillars of red sandstone. Ranging from about 13'6" to 18' high, they are thought to date back around four thousand years. In a world that's forever changing, the Standing Stones of Lundin provide a reassuring familiarity. These megaliths are one of the few local landmarks that would be recognisable to our ancestors. The land use around the stanes has however changed with the times. Long gone are the sheep pictured in the etching above by local engraver William Ballingall circa 1870. Crops no longer grow around their bases. For the past century plus, golf has been played among and around them.
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​This 1872 photograph by John Patrick shows a gentleman examining the stones while near rows of crops grow at his feet. It was likely a farm worker that discovered a "coffin built of loose slabs" on the site around 1844, which had been exposed immediately adjoining the standing stones. 

The 1908 image captured by Lady Henrietta Gilmour shows the stones shortly before the Lundin Ladies Golf Club moved to occupy the site and embrace the stanes as a feature of their course. The zoomed in detail below shows clear evidence of graffiti in the form of carved initials and messages. The 2 September 1908 extract from the Leven Advertiser further below explains how this vandalism led to the installation of railings that year. 
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The newspaper piece below from a 1969 East Fife Mail shows a section of the railings. By this time they were looking a little buckled and worse for wear. 
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The two images below, both from the Canmore Collection, show the stanes shortly before and after the railing removal. The first is from the mid-1970s and shows a wider scene of the second hole fairway (and third tee behind) with the railings still around the stanes. The second image dates to 1986, when the stanes had been recently released from their iron enclosures, enabling people to fully enjoy their ancient splendour from all angles.

I've just noticed today that the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) have added two new images of Lundin Links to their 'Britain from Above' website.  These are the first images to be added from the Lundin Links and Largo area (although there are several views of neighbouring Leven).  Use of the images on blogs is permitted provided they are not altered and the attribution is displayed.  Both images were taken in 1954 and are centred on what is now the Old Manor Hotel, but then was the Beach Hotel.  

The above image is a wider angle shot, including the railway station and its sidings to the lower right corner and Woodielea Road and the first hole of the Ladies Golf Course to the top right corner.  Both images show the Standing Stanes in the centre of the golf course and the terraced garden of the hotel.  Note the intensive cultivation of the ground to the left of the hotel and the very new looking houses on Links Road (then Station Road).  Also noticeable are the gap sites on both sides of Leven Road, where more houses would later be built.  Hopefully more images of the local area might be added to the Britain from Above website over time - I'll keep an eye out.

A couple of undated views of the Standing Stanes today but with a bit of information about the coming and going of railings and the development of the golf course, a guess can be made at dates.  The top image shows the surrounding land as a field rather than a golf course.  The Lundin Ladies Golf Club moved to 'Standing Stanes Park' in 1909, so the photograph was probably taken shortly before then.

The other postcard shows the stanes surrounded by a single set of railings.  These railings were in place from time of the opening of the Ladies course on its new site until 1922, when they were replaced with two separate enclosures, allowing play through the middle.

The presence of railings required there to be a local rule in event of balls falling within the enclosed area or other interference from the structures.  Eventually, the deterioration of the railings and the tendency for litter to collect within them led to them being completely removed in the mid-1980s.  Now the Standing Stanes are an integral part of the course and look as they are meant to be - imposing and unconfined.

I've always been intrigued by the Standin' Stanes but unfortunately they throw up more questions than answers.  They are believed to be around 4,000 years old.  What is known is that they are red sandstone, the tallest is about 5 metres high and there was a fourth stone at one time.  Questions include - how many stones were there originally, where did the stone come from, how was it moved and manoeuvred into position, and by whom?  And of course the key question - why?  

The same questions apply to many other stone megaliths around the country.  Current thinking seems to be that they were a way of commemorating the dead (ancestors) and marking a special place.  This particular site has a number of physical features that would have been special or useful in the New Stone Age and Bronze Age, including proximity to the sea, a fresh water supply in the shape of the Hatton Burn and the fact that this area is a flat 'raised beach', ideal for travel, settlement and farming.

I like to imagine the tales these stones could tell if they could talk - about the events and changes they have witnessed, about the people who have scrutinised them, about the lives that have been lived in their shadow and of course the story of their origins.  How much longer will they stand and what future events will they exist to 'see'?  I think they are a great asset to the village and like that they are integrated into a busy golf course and are no longer hidden behind the railings that I remember from my childhood.

In May of 1842 a worker from Sunnybraes Farm discovered a stone coffin containing one complete set of bones and an earthen jar.  The Fife Herald of 18 May reported that "on touching the bones they fell asunder; but the skull was removed to the farmhouse of Sunnybraes."  The discovery reignited debate about the origin of the Standing Stanes themselves.  The three theories mentioned in the article (as reflecting thinking at that time) were that they were either a Druidic temple, or of Roman origin or mementos of Danish Generals slain in battle.

By 27 June 1842, the Caledonian Mercury provided an update on the story, stating that the skull was now being moved from Sunnybraes to Edinburgh so that "antiquarians, phrenologists and anatomists of that city may have an opportunity of inspecting that remarkable relic and reporting upon it."  This article added that "several skeletons have within these last few years been dug up near to Sunny Braes".  It also elaborated on the original story of this latest discovery, explaining that a large stone had impeded the plough and so the farm worker had blown it up with gunpowder, exposing a cairn of stones, under which the coffin was found.

What conclusions the Edinburgh experts came to in 1842, I am not sure.  Something to look into another day, and certainly I will return to the subject of the Stanin' Stanes o' Lundie (as they are referred to in the above postcard) in future posts.