File:Cairn on summit of the Hill of Standing Stones - geograph.org.uk - 992573.jpg

English: Cairn on summit of the Hill of Standing Stones. The Hill of Standing Stones has an evocative name, but it is also one that may cause some puzzlement, since the hill has had this name for a long time, while the present cairn on the summit is clearly of no great antiquity.

As recorded in the book "Changing Identities / Ancient Roots – a history of West Dunbartonshire from earliest times" (2007; ed. Ian Brown), the name appears in its Scots form 'Hill of Standing Stanes' on the "Ordnance Survey 6-inch 1st edition (1864), but has been Englished to 'Hill of Standing Stones' on more recent Ordnance Survey maps."

At the time of writing, there is no evidence that an imposing monument of standing stones ever stood upon this hilltop. The marker cairn on the summit is modern. It sits on an apparently older and much larger "cairn", but those partly-exposed rocks seem to be, instead, just outcrops of the underlying bedrock; see: 1153598.

Hence, the prevailing opinion is that a nearby cist, formerly a much more imposing monument, gave rise to the name of the nearby hill; see: 915099.

The hill is called "Standingstoppe" on a map in the Atlas of Scotland (published by Joan Blaeu in 1654, but based on surveys by Timothy Pont in the 1580s-90s).

It is also of interest in that its summit lies along the course of a old drove road; see 1009890. A stone marking the site of a cattle stance (a place where drovers and their herds might rest for the night) used to be located on the summit; in fact, that marker is still there, but it has been incorporated into the cairn. It can be seen end-on in this photo; it has a roughly square cross section, is left of centre in the cairn, and is about two-thirds of the way to the top; for a better view of that stone, see: 1126061.

As for the background of the photograph, Loch Lomond can be seen there, as well as some of the mountains that lie beyond; of these, Ben Lomond, visible left of centre, is particularly prominent; Ben Vorlich appears in the gap to its left. On the skyline near the right-hand edge of the image, the broad dark hill Gualann is visible, with distant Ben Venue and surrounding peaks behind it.