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A green iron gate between stone pillars leads into the woods, an information board beside it headed The Cockstane, Clach na Coileach.
Aberdeenshire

The Cockstane: Clan MacThomas' Ancient Gathering Stone

Clach na Coileach, the Cockstane, a great glacial boulder in Glenshee that has been the gathering place of Clan MacThomas since the 1400s.

Welcome

A little way off the road up Glenshee, just south of Finegand, a green iron gate bearing the clan's crest leads into a small clearing among the trees, and there sits a great grey boulder, cloaked in moss and lichen.

Visited and photographed by Jack Cairney

Left behind by the ice, it is Clach na Coileach, the Cockstane, the ancient gathering place of Clan MacThomas.

The clan takes its name from Tomaidh Mor, Great Tommy, a Highlander who settled his kinsmen in Glenshee in the 1400s. The stone's name comes from a story about one of his descendants, McComie Mor, a man of great strength. When tax gatherers seized the hens of a poor widow near Finegand, he went after them and drove them off, and the widow's cockerel gave its name to the rock.

The clan's society was founded in 1954, and every three years MacThomases from all over the world come back to gather at the stone.

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The Daily for 13 November, from Scotland with love. A waterfall tumbles over mossy rocks into a woodland pool, autumn leaves scattered on the water.

Before you go

Free, at any time.

The stone stands in a small enclosure behind a gate off the A93 just south of Finegand in Glenshee; there is room to pull in nearby.

Where
Off the A93 just south of Finegand, Glenshee.
Gatherings
Clan MacThomas, every three years.

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Where it is

In Glenshee, off the A93 just south of Finegand, between Blairgowrie and the Spittal of Glenshee.

Close byGlenshee.
  1. Glenshee Café & Gift ShopGlenshee Café & Gift ShopA café, gift shop and farm shop on the A93 through Glenshee, a warm stop for walkers and skiers on the road to Braemar, open every day.Under a mile 1 min by road
  2. The round dry-stone shelter on the top of Mount Blair, a steel viewpoint indicator ringing its rim, with snow-streaked hills across the glens beyond.Mount BlairA 744-metre hill on the Perthshire and Angus boundary, between Glen Shee and Glen Isla, with a track to the top.2 miles as the crow flies
  3. Glen Shee from the road, heather and hills under a wide sky.GlensheeThe A93 climbing to the Cairnwell Pass and Scotland's largest ski area, with a summer chairlift, a café and Munros from the car park.5 miles 6 min by road
  4. Devil’s Elbow ViewpointDevil’s Elbow ViewpointThe old hairpin road over the Cairnwell.8 miles 11 min by road
  5. Saltire flag flies above the Fife Arms Hotel's stepped gablesBraemarA Highland village of Upper Deeside.19 miles 24 min by road
  6. Braemar CastleBraemar CastleA white tower house of 1628, run by the village.20 miles 27 min by road
Directions
The whole of Larch House across its meadow: the larch-clad gable and long roof with roof lights, the lower wing beside it, a ring of river stones in the grass and oaks behind.BlairgowrieLarch HouseSleeps 6 · 1.4 miles
Glenshee Kirk, a small rubble-stone church with a bellcote, behind a mossy kirkyard wall and old gravestones, a green hill rising behind it at the Spittal of Glenshee.AttractionsSpittal of Glenshee4.5 miles
Persie Distillery's still behind glass: a brass pot with a round copper top beside a tall copper column with portholes, against an old stone wall.AttractionsPersie Distillery5.9 miles
AttractionsCreag Leacach6.4 miles
AttractionsGlas Maol7.8 miles
AttractionsThe Cairnwell8.1 miles
A path and a winding burn cross the floor of Corrie Fee beneath steep grassy and rocky slopes, with the head of the glacial corrie ahead under a blue sky.AttractionsMayar8.5 miles
AttractionsCarn Aosda9.2 miles
A beaver dam of peeled sticks holding back a pond at Bamff in early spring, a ruined steading and a timber-clad barn beyond.WalksBamff Wildland9.4 miles

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Stay nearby

Places to stay near the stone, and when each is next free.

The whole of Larch House across its meadow: the larch-clad gable and long roof with roof lights, the lower wing beside it, a ring of river stones in the grass and oaks behind.Larch House
  • Sleeps 6
  • In Blairgowrie
  • Under a mile from the Cockstane
Check datesA stone cottage with a gabled dormer window catches evening light among autumn trees, a bench and picnic table on the gravel outside.Charlottefield
  • Sleeps 4
  • In Tulliemet
  • 12 miles from the Cockstane
Check datesNàdair, AngusNàdair
  • Sleeps 6
  • In Kirriemuir
  • 12 miles from the Cockstane
Free 20–23 NovAn aerial view shows a stone and timber cottage with a round hot tub in the garden, hills rising behind a dry stone wall.Pheasant Cottage
  • Sleeps 6
  • In Kincraigie
  • 14 miles from the Cockstane
Check datesPlaces to stayEvery stay in AberdeenshireAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
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