Here is the story so far..
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Indigenous people in different parts of the world, most likely pre-Christian peoples of Scotland, and neo-Pagans believe/d that humans live and share their environment with 'other-than-human' persons. This is challenging for common Western European ideas of person-hood: The term 'person' refers, according to animist belief, not to human-likeness, but to 'willful beings who gain meaning and power from their interactions'. For example, animals such as bears and ravens, stones, rivers and trees, in the animist world-view, are all 'other-than-human' persons, which in different cultures and environments, have communication, and respectful, interactive relations with others. Note, however, that not all stones may be understood as 'stone-persons': some have become special and significant because of their particular relationships with other persons (including humans).
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This animist and indigenous world-view can be used as an interpretive tool, as a way to learn more about the Clackmannan stone, which people, locals and historians alike, know very little about. Furthermore, legends and stories, as bearers of knowledge passed down through generations through oral means, are being used by many contemporary historians as artefacts which can augment and support archaeological interpretations.
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In legend and early historical writing, Clackmannanshire has been associated as Manau Gododdin, the northern region of the dark-age kingdom Gododdin which stretched across central Scotland and Lothians. The stone has often been mentioned to have been worshiped by local iron-age people onwards, for containing the spirit of the Pictish/Brythonic/Scots-Irish legendary god of the sea/shaman Manau. Where might the stone have came from? Was it during this time that the stone was attributed significance and worshipped? What rituals and communications might have ancient local people made to this spirit? When St. Serf came to the area to promote Christianity in the 6th Century, how might he have interpreted or diverted the stone's local significance?
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Some accounts say it used to sit on the coastline of an expanded Firth of Forth, others suggest it originally sat on one of Inch islands in the middle of the river. However, the stone next appears chronologically in another legend connected to King Robert the Bruce; when in the 14th Century, he was hunting around the area and had apparently stopped at the stone. Recognising afterwards that he had lost his glove, he proclaimed 'Look aboot ye!' to his servants, where-upon it was found in/on the stone. A descendant of the king, Thomas Bruce, became the first Baron of Clackmannan, and established the Bruce name in the region.
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There is currently little knowledge about how the stone was kept, for how long, and for what symbolism. However, the stone must have been deemed important enough to be brought in and kept in the local noble's home or guardianship, as it was last documented as being kept inside the Clackmannan tower. Which legend inspired its maintenance and who was aware of the relocated stone's presence? When visiting the region in 1787 the poet Robert Burns was faux-knighted with King Robert's Sword by the last laird of the Clackmannan, the old dame Catherine Bruce, did he also get to know the stone?
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The stone then became a public figure in 1833, when it was put out on public display next to the disused ruins of the Tollbooth (court and prison) on Clackmannan Main Street. By this time, the Clackmannan-based Bruce dynastic line had already ended for about 50 years, and their Tower itself had also fell into disrepair. With support from the Bruce family of Kennet, the stone was elevated onto a large pillar of whinstone, according to records, dragged by 16 horses from the Abbey Craigs quarry near Stirling. Was the stone raised and supported as a conscious Victorian appreciation for ancient power symbols, or as a symbol of Bruce historical continuity? Whichever way, the stone itself was neither noted as a public monument nor as an object of antiquarian interest, in either of the Statistical Accounts for the Parish in 1790s and 1830s, before or after its appearance on the Main Street.
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During the industrial revolutions of the late 1800s and social developments of the 20th Century, the local population have witnessed many changes in social, cultural and scientific changes. The stone has 'absorbed' all of them as a silent witness. It sits next to the remains of pre-modern burgh life – tolbooth/prison, mercat/market cross – and their authority in the area. However, the local authorities over the years have, despite increased academic awareness and common interest in ancient monuments, have focused little attention to the stone and it's heritage.
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In 2001, the Scottish sculptor George Wylie, himself an art-master of material transformations, suggested, in a local tourism/regeneration symposium, that moving the stone would be a significant iconic gesture, promoting regeneration and rejuvenation to the region. Little happened to test this theory. A small sculptural arrangement of a bottle of sea-water and a small stone of similar ancient quality was given by George in a wooden chest. The seal on the bottle is to be opened and poured onto the stone only when the stone of Manau is repositioned again on the shores of the Forth. This ritual might have to wait for another age.
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Four years later, when the iron-rod placed between the supporting shaft and the stone, holding them together since the 19th century, was eroding putting the structural integrity of the monument at risk, it was proposed that the stone be shifted for structural repair. Astonished local councilors witnessed rallied local support and opinion in favour of the stone's permanence in the town, with threats of a 'sit-in' protest from local women. Such an angry reaction had not been witnessed for ages, said the report. Contemporary interpretations relate the stone as a symbol of fertility, no doubt due to its phallic nature, since being raised on its plinth. Locals joke that the stone continues to confer virility on local men and fertility on the town’s women.
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Now all is captured on camera. The stone sits in full view of the town's CCTV camera overlooking the High Street, installed to monitor crime and social/civil disobedience in the town. The stone now shares with local inhabitants and particularly young-people - that of one's being consistently written into the local visual-data record – of the town. All have data-bodies, accumulating over time, 1s and 0s.
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'Meeting the Clackmannan Stone(-Person) on the Main Street'
[slides .pdf 13.7 MB] | [notes .pdf 160 KB]
Presented at Living Landscapes Conference, Aberystwyth University, Wales, 20.06.2009.
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