Standing Stones

The standing stones are symbolic of the history of Scotland and the fact that the land itself will continue to endure regardless of the historical and sociological changes that occur around it. By the end of the novel, everything that has defined Kinraddie during the time that Chris has lived there has been destroyed, but the standing stones remain in the exact same way they were when Chris first arrives, and in the exact same place they’d been since they were erected by the Druids. The tribute to the men killed in WW1 etched onto the stones represents the fact that the stones contain the shared history of everything that has occurred on the land.

Woods

The woods are in many ways the opposite of the standing stones in their symbolic significance, as they represent impermanence and change in the novel. Unlike the standing...