Martin wrote that the people told him the site at 'Classerniss' was a place of worship in heathen times and that the chief druid stood by the big central stone to address the crowd. In the same chapter he noted that some of the 'ignorant vulgar' said the standing stones of the island were men turned into stones by enchantment, while others said they marked persons of note killed in battle. His description counts 39 stones in an avenue, a circle of 12 and a central stone 13 feet high.
The stones date to roughly 2900 BC and the folklore is much later. The giants story has the usual shape of a conversion tale, in which a stone circle becomes a punishment, and it is told of many sites in Britain. This record covers the folklore only.
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