I have visited this site many times, since my late father comes from Islay and I have been going there since I was a child (most recently in 2005). The stone stands in front of a small hillock called Cnoc Mor - 'The Great Hill' - an odd name as it is only about two metres tall. In the same field, Pairc Bhaile Neill, are the remains of a chapel, Cille Lasrach, and a similarly named ancient well, Tobar Cille Lasrach. Lasrach is form of Lasair, a saint, but Maceacharna in The Lands of the Lordship notes that the word also relates to 'a feminine word meaning a flame'. Interestingly if you pass this site on the small road leading off the the main road from Port Ellen to Ardbeg you soon come to another site - Kilbride. Saint/Goddess Bride is sometimes linked with Lasair.
Source of quote: MACEACHARNA, DOMHNALL The Lands of the Lordship; the Romance of Islay's Names
Argyll Reproductions, Isle of Islay 1st ed 1976.
Monstrously tall, roughly 14 feet high, 3feet wide and 18 inches thick, on a WNW/ESE axis, and about ten metres from a rocky outcrop (possible ur-sacred site?).
The material is a dark blue stone covered – above the level of livestock using it as a rubbing post – in that stringy green lichen that you only find in places with very clean air. There is a fabulous view out to the open sea.
Clearly visible on your left as you go along the A846 from Port Ellen/Port Eilein to Ardbeg. Don't bunk the fence – there's a stile by a dip in the wall beside the minor road that runs up from opposite the new water treatment works into the hills.
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