File:Cattle stance marker (number three) - geograph.org.uk - 1126063.jpg

English: Cattle stance marker (number three). See the main article: 1126061. Reference is made there to a booklet by Prof Robert A. Rankin, which explains the significance of these stones.

The booklet mentions that stone 3 (shown here) lies near the highest point of the Lang Dyke (a prominent ridge that forms the background of this photograph), and that it lies about 100 metres to the east of stone 1 (which is now part of a cairn on the Hill of Standing Stones). I believe the text was intended to read "900 metres" (the rough distance is evident from the 1:25000 map); in any case, with the benefit of GPS readings, I was able to establish that the distance between the two stones is about 880 metres.

The stone shown here has a large figure "3" carved into its top face, as shown here: 1153383. In other respects, it looks very similar to marker stone 1 (for which, see the link at the start of this article).

The stones have a smoothly-finished upper half, and a very irregular lower half (presumably this part was originally below ground). The upper half is square (7 inches × 7 inches) in cross-section, but has rounded edges for the topmost 12 inches of its height.

Below that, for another three inches, the stone is still square in cross-section, but without the rounded edges, and with a cruder finish, suggesting that this part was also intended to be beneath ground, to secure the stone more firmly in place. As for the very irregular lower part of the stone, this is about 10 inches in depth, and is up to about 12 inches in width.

(The Feuars' Muir marker stones - 992179 - were constructed in a similar manner, with only the part that was to be visible above ground level being smoothly finished.)

It would be pointless to look for marker stone 2 on the moor; as Prof Rankin notes, "stone 2 presumably lay half-way between, near the saddle of the ridge, but has been removed for safety to the garden of a nearby farm. It is the most interesting of the three, as the four words WHO HAS NO SIN are inscribed on the four vertical faces; see John 8:7".

The photograph was taken during blustery rain; for another view, see 1153296, taken two weeks later.