
Latheron, 2 standing stones
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Latheron, 2 standing stones is a menhir in Highland, United Kingdom. It lies at 58.2849° N, 3.3674° W.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Latheron, 2 standing stones
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief. The regional background, “British and Irish standing stones”, is given below.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in United Kingdom are generally dated 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.
Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.
Setting
40 other recorded monuments lie within 10 km (1 within 1 km, 23 within 5 km), 1 of them of the same type. In Highland, United Kingdom, 22 of the 556 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are Latheron stone (0.6 km south, stele); Forse House, settlement, field system, burnt mounds and cairns WSW of (1.4 km north-east, chambered cairn); broch 450m S of Latheronwheel Bridge (1.7 km south-west, cyclopean masonry); The Tulloch (Usshilly), broch and field system WNW of Forse House (2.0 km north-east, cyclopean masonry).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Heritage status: scheduled monument.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
British and Irish standing stones
Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief.
Some stand in groups. The Calanais Stones on the Isle of Lewis, built around 2750 BCE, form a circle with a tall central monolith and several rows extending outwards in a cross-shaped plan, on a ridge overlooking Loch Roag. The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire include the King's Men, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights, three monuments built in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Folklore: the names of the Rollright Stones come from stories told since the early modern period; legend holds that the King Stone comes alive at the stroke of midnight. At Calanais one tradition says the stones were giants who would not convert to Christianity, and in the seventeenth century the people of Lewis called them fir bhrèige, "false men". Another legend says that on midsummer morning an entity known as the Shining One walks the length of the avenue. These are traditions, not memories of the builders.
The Atlas treats isolated stones as undated unless they have been excavated.
When visiting, look at how a stone stands in relation to the landscape and to any nearby monument.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Callanish Stones, Wikipedia: Rollright Stones, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.

The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in United Kingdom; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 58°17′06″ N, 3°22′03″ WFor a GPS or map app: 58.28491, -3.36738
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Latheron stone- Chambered cairnForse House, settlement, field system, burnt mounds and cairns WSW of4000–2500 BCE
- Cyclopean masonrybroch 450m S of Latheronwheel Bridge390 BCE–200 CE
- Cyclopean masonryThe Tulloch (Usshilly), broch and field system WNW of Forse House390 BCE–200 CE
- Cyclopean masonrySmerral, broch to E of Bunellich390 BCE–200 CE
- Chambered cairnchambered cairn 580m SE of Latheronwheel House4000–2500 BCE
- Cyclopean masonrySmerral Wood390 BCE–200 CE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Guidebest, stone circle, Latheronwheel Burn4000–800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q56661564wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Latheron stone0.6 km S
- Forse House, settlement, field system, burnt mounds and cairns WSW of1.4 km NE
- broch 450m S of Latheronwheel Bridge1.7 km SW
- The Tulloch (Usshilly), broch and field system WNW of Forse House2.0 km NE
- Smerral, broch to E of Bunellich2.1 km W
- chambered cairn 580m SE of Latheronwheel House2.2 km SW
- Smerral Wood2.2 km W
- Guidebest, stone circle, Latheronwheel Burn2.3 km NW
- broch 230m E of Upper Latheron2.5 km SW
- chambered cairn 530m ESE of Upper Latheron2.5 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q56661564CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0