Ravenswood standing stone
menhir in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The Ravenswood standing stone is an ancient monument in The Inch, Edinburgh, Scotland. Erected around 2000 BC, it is a menhir that may mark the site of an ancient battle or have had a ritual use. It was moved in the early 19th-century for a road scheme, but returned to its original location in 1891. It was moved again in 1971 and now sits in a cul-de-sac on a housing estate, protected by metal railings. It is 1.85 metres (6 ft 1 in) high.
Description
The stone stands in the footway at the north-west side of the cul-de-sac at the eastern end of Ravenswood Avenue in The Inch in Edinburgh. It is set into concrete and stands at 1.85 metres (6 ft 1 in) high. The stone measures 70 centimetres (28 in) in diameter at its base and tapers towards the top. The stone is formed of grey sandstone containing some quartz crystals. It has natural erosion grooves on the east and west faces and a large, ear-shaped, naturally-formed cavity on the east face.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56661561. Authority coordinates are 55.922, -3.149. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 1891 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ravenswood standing stone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.