Scottish Geographical Magazine
ISSN: 0036-9225 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj19
The Auld Wives' Lifts—A pseudo-megalithic tor
Professor J.W. Gregory D.Sc. F.R.S.
To cite this article: Professor J.W. Gregory D.Sc. F.R.S. (1916) The Auld Wives'
Lifts—A pseudo-megalithic tor, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 32:6, 279-282, DOI:
10.1080/14702541608554863
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702541608554863
Published online: 30 Jan 2008.
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W U - H A N : THE HEART OF CHINA.
279
will appeal with new meaning to a people whose consciousness and
imagination are being quickened by the poignant experiences of the
present time to grasp the true meaning of the issues which hang upon
international relations. No greater contribution could be made towards
the solution of the pressing problems which the industrialisation of China,
as typified by the expansion of " W u - H a n " will inevitably force upon
the world.
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T H E AULD WIVES' L I F T S - - A PSEUDO-MEGALITHIC TOR.
By Professor J. W. G~Eaoa¥, D.Sc., F.R.S.
(With two Figzt~'es.)
THE 2tuld Wives' Lifts is a pile of three huge stones in the form of an
arch on Craigmaddie Muir, near Glasgow. It has been generally regarded as a megalithie trilithon or cromlech, erected by people of the
race which erected Stonehenge, such eromleehs as Kit's Coty House, and
~he standing stones which are still numerous in Scotland. D. Wilson,
for example, in his P~'e-historic~lnnals of Scotland (1863, p. 93), calls it "One
of the most celebrated Scottish eromlechs." It was figured and described
in 1793 byD. Ure (pp. 85-87, pl. opp. p. 85), who explained its origin as a
Druid's altar. He related the ancient tradition that "three old women
having laid a wager which of them would carry the greatestburden, brought
in their aprons the three stones of which it is constructed, and laid them
in th~ position in which they are now foundY He also reported the
superstition that through the opening between the stones " every
stranger who visits this place for the firs~ time must creep~ otherwise
he shall die childless." Ure attributed the story of its origin to " t h e
Druidesses who might at this place superintend the sacred rites."
The view that the Lifts is artificial is adopted, amongst others, by
this country. The refusal of the Government was based partly on the ground that a British
University had already been established in Hong Kong. Useful as this institution certainly
is, it is far too remote from the Yang-tze valley materially to influence the situation in what
is after M1 the most important sphere of British interests in China. But the main ground
of refusal was the indifference of the British public to the scheme. The .fact is not, I think,
sufficiently realised in this country that the United States remitted a considerable proportion
vf its Boxer indemnity for the purpose of establishing a large and well-equipped college
outside Peking, the main object of which is to train Chinese students for the American
Un~verMties. During the last few years America. Japall, and Germany have devoted large
sums of money and great energy both to educational projects in China itself and to the work
of strengthening the connection between Chinese students and the home Universities. In
both these respects Great Britain has lagged a long way behind these countries. This
indifference seems to be singularly short-sighted from the point of view of our own commercial interests, since Chinese students who afterwards become merchants, manufacturers, or
engineers naturally tend. to build up a trade connection with the country under whose
auspices they have been trMned. I t is.to be regretted too on higher grounds, since, as I
"have argued elsewhere (Rez)o~'t to Trwstees of the Albert Kahn T~'ust, 1914) Great Britain is in
some important respects better qualified than any other country to help China in the solution
vf the critical educational problems with which she is now confronted.
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SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICA~L MAGAZIb~E.
Wilson (1863, p. 93), :Nimmo (1880, re|. i. p. 56), H. M'Donald (1856~
pp. 368-371), and G. E. Todd (1898, pp. 2-3). The last author remarks
that " P r o b a b l y no better example exists of the rude stone altar of
Druid times." The Lifts stands in a fiat floored depression which,
following Ure, has generally been stated as 250 yards in diameter.
The width east and west on a line through the Lifts is about 130 yards.
Mr. Todd represents this basin as excavated by the people who
arranged the stones. I t is, he says, "evidently, from its regularity and
its level surface, the work of human hands" (p. 3). A suggested glacial
origin of the structure is referred to by Dugald Bell (1881, p. 66).
The Auld Wives' Lifts stands on Craigmaddie Muir, on the hills to
the north of Glasgow. I t is on the estate of J. Bartholomew, Esq. of
Torrance, and is about 400 yards north of North Blochairn farm. I t is
a little over two miles north-east of Milngavie Station. I t is at the
height of about 580 feet above sea-level. According to Wilson, " a
spectator standing on it can see across the island from sea to sea ; and
may almost at the same moment observe the smoke from a steamer
entering at the Firth of Clyde, and from another below Grangemouth
in the F o r t h " (Wilson, o~v.cir. p. 93). 1
The essential features of the Lifts indicate that it is a natural formarion. The stones are all of the localUarboniferous sandstone. Wilson
stated that the capstone consists of basalt, but this statement is incorrect.
The sides of the depression around the Lifts are formed of similar sandstones. The capstone, which is 19 feet long by 13 feet wide by 7 feet thick,
is a falsebedded sandstone; the true bedding planes in it are almost
horizontal. Each of the two supporting stones consists of an upper layer,
about 2 feet 9 inches thick, of a well bedded sandstone with many small
quartz pebbles, and of a lower layer of fine grained massive sandstone, of
which 4 feet 3 inches is exposed in the eastern stone and 3 feet 9 inches
in the western stone. The agreement in character between the two
supporting stones show that they were originally part of one mass of
sandstone. The bedding planes in both the supporting stones dip westward about 25 °. The cliff of sandstone to the west of the Lifts (Fig. 2)
consists of 3 feet of pebbly sandstone resting on 15 feet of falsebedded sandstone similar in character to the capstone ; and at the foot
of the cliffs is a layer about a foot thick of pebbly sandstone similar to
that forming the upper part of the two supporting stones. Similar
rocks to the Lifts can be seen also in the northern and eastern slopes of
the depression. The Auld Wives' Lifts consists then of three blocks of
the local sandstone still in their relative positions (Fig. 1).
The origin of the Lifts probably began by the excavation of two
valleys which cut into the sandstone plateau, and left a ridge trending
north and south across the amphitheatre. This ridge was then cut
across by the meeting of the branch valleys to the north of the Lifts.
A boss of sandstone was thus left in the centre of the depression. The
boss was gradually reduced by wind, rain, and weather to a sandstone
1 [ have not been able to confirm this stateI~ent, as on m y visits to the locality t h e
w e a t h e r has not been~clear enough to allow either coast to be seel~.
THE AULD WIVES'
LIFTS--A
PSEUDO-IVIEGALITHIC TOR,
281
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for. Further weathering decomposed the soft layer between the capstone and the underlying pebbly layer. The readiness with which this
layer is worn away is shown by the cave formed by its decay on the
northern side of the amphitheatre. Meanwhile the foundations of the
pile must have been weakened by denudation and the two supporting
stones slipped westward. A similar slip has formed the miniature
whangie, a cleft beside the cave in the north-eastern bank of the amphitheatre, 60 yards north-east of the Lifts. The capstone sank into the
i
iL/
/./\
FIe. 1 . - - T h e A u l d W i r e s ' Lifts.
vq
E
FIo. 2 . - - S e c t i o n across the A u l d Wives' Lifts s h o w i n g the r e l a t i o n of its sandstone
to t h o s e in t h e a d j a c e n t b a n k s .
Vertical S c a l e - - ] i n c h = 5 0 feet.
F.S. = F a l s e - b e d d e d Sandstone.
H o r i z o n t a l S c a l e - - 1 inch = 100 feet.
P. = P e b b l y Sandstone.
hollow formed by the separation of the two supporting stones. Tha~
the capstone originally rested on the horizontal surface of the supporting
stones is shown by the correspondence in the irregularities of their
surfaces. About two feet from the southern edge of the eastern supporting stone is a slight elevation which corresponds to a depression on the
under surface of the capstone. A step on the eastern supporting stone
no doubt once fitted into the corresponding notch on the under surface
of the capstone. The surfaces are of course a good dealworn by the
weather, but sufficient of the original surface is still left to show that the
irregularities on the top of the eastern supporting stone are the counterpart of those on the bottom of the capstone. Similarly the opposite
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SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE.
faces of the two supporting stones are also counterparts, showing that
the gap between them was formed by their movement apart.
The arrangement of the three stones in the trilithon can be explained
without any appeal to the action of man. The formation of tors by the
weathering of sandstone and granite is a common phenomenon, and the
blocks assume various forms and arrangements. The sandstone around
the Auld Wives' Lifts show clefts due to the widening of joints, the
slipping of loosened blocks, and the irregular weathering of the rock
along both vertical joints and horizontal bands of weak stone. I have
seen many of the cromlechs in England and Brittany, but the Auld
Wives ~Lifts is unlike any of them. I t may be regarded as a pseudomegalithie tor.
REFERENCES.
:BELL,D. (1881.)---Among the ~ocks aro~nd Glasgow. viii + 9,23 lop.
M'Do~AnD, HVQH (1856.)--t~ambles ro~nd Glasgow; descriptive, historical,
and traditional. 2nd edit. 437 pp.
NI~o~ ~V. (1880.)--The History of Stirlingshire. 3rd edit. vol. I., x+
402 pp, map.
TODD, G. E. (1898.)--The Book of Glasgow Cathedral; c~ history and
description., xii + 454 lolo.
URE, D. (1793.)--The History of Ruthergle~z and East I~Ibride. viii + 334 +
xxii pp., 21 lols.
"WILSON,D. (1863.)--Pre-historic A~tnals of Scotland. P~ndedit. vol. L, xxxv +
504 lop. 9 p!s.
AOGASHIMA.
By W. B. MASON, Corresponding Member.
(With an Illustration.)
T ~ n island of Aogashima, though not included in the " S e v e n Isles of
Izu," comes under the s a m e jurisdiction? I t lies some 34 miles to
the south-west of Hachij6, the most southerly member of the group.
In olden times it was known as Oni-ga-shima, or " T h e Isle of Demons,"
the natives having the reputation of being black and hairy, and wearing
leaves of trees for clothing. The stay-at-home Japanese tell you that
they still differ physically from the inhabitants of the mainland, but I
cannot say that I noticed any marked variation from the normal type.
Aogashima, as seen from the sea (see figure), is a r o c k y mass, rising
almost sheer from the water's edge, its sides covered with scrub except
where the rain has washed away the surface soil. Avalanches of rock and
earth from the precipitous slopes are of constant occurrence. There is no
coastal indentation large enough to accommodate an ordinary j u n k ; and
1 These islands stretch away for 120 miles in a southerly direction from near the entrance
¢o T6ky5 Bay to 38°lat.