Dunino Den
Dunino Den (also known as Balkethly or Balkaithley) is located in the woods behind Dunino Church in Belaybridge south of St Andrews in Fife in Scotland .
It is a pre-Christian cult site that consists of an altar stone , an artificial porthole (called the Holy Spring ) and an ancient footprint carved into the rock. Other features include a stone circle and a church with a cemetery. The name Dunino derives from the Gaelic word for "fort of the assembly" ( Dun ).
In the cemetery stands the weathered remnant of a cuboid stone, a little more than 0.65 m high, with incised crosses on two sides. It is a Pictish monument from AD 800. People leave coins on the flat top, earlier it wore a sundial built in 1698 . A fragment of a cross slab was found in the cemetery. It is now in the museum in St Andrews.
The porthole on the cliff is said to have been used by druids for sacrifices. Stairs that were carved into the cliff during the pagan era lead into the so-called cave , a narrow gorge. Here a 2.7 m high Celtic cross and other symbols such as B. a face carved into the rock face. The design of the Celtic cross suggests that it could be early medieval. The pagan pilgrims who have recently come to this place leave offerings of all kinds that hang on the trees (see Clootie Well ) or stuck in crevices in the cliffs.
- Dunino Den
A Neolithic-Bronze Age stone circle (Canmore ID 34487) is said to have stood near a Druidic temple. Three stones near the western wall are said to belong to a completely destroyed circle near the church of Dunino.
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Coordinates: 56 ° 17 ′ 18.1 ″ N , 2 ° 44 ′ 40.8 ″ W.