Holey Stones

In a small area of the beach at Lundin Links, I found a number of stones with circular holes in them. The holes are likely to have been naturally made by a rock-boring bivalve mollusc, such as the common piddock (Pholas dactylus). All the stones I found appeared to be of red sandstone. The piddock's shell has a set of ridges or "teeth", which it uses to grind away at clay or soft rock. The shape of the hole made is due to the rotating motion of the piddock as it grinds the rock to form its burrow.

In some of the stones the circular hole goes right through as in these two above which I picked up in the same spot. They were about three inches high. In folklore these sort of stones were given names such as hag stones, Odin stones or witches stones. They were often used as charms, talismen or healing stones. They were thought to have magical powers and were often hung from doors of houses or on bedposts to ward off witches and other evil spirits.