{"id":961,"date":"2011-08-14T22:43:50","date_gmt":"2011-08-14T21:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/?page_id=961"},"modified":"2026-08-29T14:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T13:10:22","slug":"7-stanes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/7-stanes\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Stanes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>
Ghost Stane at Mabie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mabie by the uphill path<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Talking Head Stane at Ae<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Deep in the Forest<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heart Cleft Stane at Dalbeattie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Heart, Mote and Slab<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Border Stane, Newcastleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Gowans Fyn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Giant Axe Head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mystery above the Laggan’s Loch<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Gem<\/a>
Gem Stane at Kirroughtree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Jewelled Loch<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meteorite Stane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spooky Woods<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0THE CYPHER – spoiler, don’t read if you want to solve it yourself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Five of the seven Stanes carry inscriptions. The Giant Axe Head has the Song of Amergin in Runic symbols; the Border Stane has Blake\u2019s Jerusalem and Burns\u2019 Auld Lang Syne; the Meteorite stane carries a notice in Klingon; the Talking Head stane has a poem by Hans B\u00f8rli; and the Cleft Heart Stane has a world map. Just the Ghost and Gem stanes are sheer. But each of the seven stanes carries a small cypher, and if the code can be cracked they reveal a famous saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These are the symbols used in the cypher. The labels are my own and may be incorrect. The star seems obvious; the target like symbol is used to represent the sun; the triple comma looks to be a tomoe or a simplified celtic swirl, it could represent water or earth; the ox-like symbol is very similar to that used to represent the constellation Taurus; the fire symbol seems straightforward; the serpent symbol might be a scorpion, my representation here is not accurate – the original actually looks like a rattle-snake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are seven stanes but only six symbols so they are unlikely to represent the stanes themselves.The symbols do not all represent constellations or zodiac signs and I cannot tie them to the four or five \u2018elements of nature\u2019 unless a snake can symbolise air. I cannot link them to the six seasons of trees and a brief dip into the symbolism of the number six itself was\u2026 unhelpful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as I would have liked these symbols to carry a message of their own, I suspect they have no special meaning. There is certainly none I can find just now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent quite some time trying to imagine what letters the symbols might represent in the cyphers, which was a dead end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was when I collected the letters following each symbol that the answer emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FORESTS ARE THE LUNGS OF THE WORLD<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mabie by the uphill path Deep in the Forest Heart, Mote and Slab The Gowans Fyn Mystery above the Laggan’s Loch The Jewelled Loch Spooky Woods \u00a0THE CYPHER – spoiler, don’t read if you want to solve it yourself Five … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-961","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10830,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/961\/revisions\/10830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}