Craigh na Dun

Stone Circle, Unknown

Craigh na Dun is a stone circle said to be near Inverness. It features in Outlander (Cross Stitch in the U.K.), where a woman uses the stones to pass back through time.. The books are part of the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon, a collection of time-travel romances set in eighteenth-century Scotland against the backdrop of the Jacobite Rebellion. The series consists of Outlander (Cross Stitch in the U.K.), Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and The Outlandish Companion (Through the Stones in the U.K.), which is a compendium of material related to the series. Two more books are planned, namely The Fiery Cross and Sons of Liberty. Several people have asked me this, and so far no one I know has been able to find the elusive stones of Craigh na Dun.

Dana Sweir Cooke writes

So what does Craigh na Dun look like? I chose this picture of Callanish V because it is on a hilltop and is about the size I imagined Craigh na Dun to be.

Martin McCarthy writes:

I've been asked about this a few times. After the first couple of queries I tried to find out where they might be, and came to the conclusion that they were invented (or "adapted" from reality). For one thing, (although I'll be the first to admit that my Gaelic is terrible) I don't think that Craigh is a very well constructed Gaelic word. Craig or Creag would be much more likely. But that proves nothing. However, I came across the following places with similar names:

• Creag an Dunain: a very ruined fort on the Isle of Jura, a long way from Inverness and probably of little interest to non-archaeologists (and perhaps little interest to archaeologists); -
• Craigandun: a deserted settlement on the Isle of Bute - slightly closer to Inverness, but at those distances it doesn't really make any difference :-)
• Craigendunton: a cairn in Ayrshire...we're only a couple of hundred miles from Inverness, now! And it's reportedly 17th century
• Craigiedun: this might even be a good candidate for "adaption". It's somewhere near Pitlochry and, according to CANMORE, was reported to be the site of a stone circle. In the 1920s it was a ruinous pile of rocks, and in the 1970s the OS surveyor reported that there was no sign of the said stones.

So it's a real mystery! Do you know if Craigh na Dun exists?

Rating: General Impression ?, Ambience 5, Access 0

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