A mounting block, horse block, carriage stone, or in
Scots a loupin'-on stane[1] is an assistance for mounting and dismounting a horse or cart.
Usage and locations
Mounting blocks were especially useful for women riding
sidesaddle or
pillion, that is 'riding double',[2] allowing a horse to be mounted or dismounted without a loss of modesty. Women would often ride behind their husbands and servants who were on foot.[3] They were also used to assist ladies and men into and out of carts.[4] They were frequently located outside churches or kirks for the use of parishioners attending services, funerals, etc. Often they were located in the main streets and outside public houses. In Yorkshire some were built at the top of steep lanes, where the rider would remount after leading his horse up the slope.[5]
Mounting blocks today are primarily used by modern
equestrians who are a) beginners b) people who have difficulty mounting (either a tall horse, or a short person, or someone with some mobility impairments) and c) people who feel that use of a mounting block reduces strain on the spine of the horse, particularly at the
withers. Modern mounting blocks are usually made of wood or of molded plastic.
Construction
Mounting blocks were usually made from stone or wood and prior to the era of the motor car they were very common. Some have three or more steps leading up to a platform which gave extra height and therefore easier access to the saddle and less chance of falling when dismounting.[6] A few had a wall or some other support to one side of the steps, as at Saint Boswells.[7] Some were built as memorials and bear inscriptions.[5] They were built with bricks, ashlar and even occasionally from a single stone block,[5] whilst an example at
Shewalton Mill in North Ayrshire is a glacial erratic boulder located in the mill yard.
Using a mounting block
A horse is best mounted using a mounting block because it is easier for the rider to mount the horse, it puts less strain on the
stirrup leathers when mounting and it decreases the chances of the saddle slipping to one side when mounting, thereby reducing the chances of a fall and possible injury to the rider. A horse or pony is mounted from the "near" side, that is the horse's left side.[8]
Decline in use of mounting blocks
Mounting blocks were a common feature up until the late 18th century.[9] They are still used at equestrian centres,[8] but are no longer a common feature of inns, churches, farms, country houses, etc. in the United Kingdom, where they were once almost an obligatory feature.
The generally poor condition of roads up until the late 18th century in
Scotland for example, meant that most passenger transport by horse was literally on horseback. For instance, wheeled vehicles were practically unknown to farmers in
Ayrshire until the end of the 18th century, and prior to this sledges or slide-cars were used to haul loads[10][11] as wheeled vehicles were useless. The roads had been mere tracks and such bridges as there were could only take pedestrians, men on horseback or pack-animals. The first recorded wheeled vehicles to be used in
Ayrshire were carts offered gratis to labourers working on
Riccarton Bridge,
Kilmarnock, in 1726.
Once wheeled vehicles became commonplace the need for horse mounting blocks would have greatly decreased, thus mounting block as a permanent fixture went out with changing times. You didn't need one for getting into carriages, and thus as roads got better and fewer people rode, the need decreased. With the invention of the automobile, the need for the public mounting block vanished and they now are used exclusively by equestrians or retained as historic features at old inns, kirks, etc.[12][13]
In the 1860s, those mounting blocks that remained in
London e.g.
Bayswater, were thought of as quaint and old fashioned "in the true style of olden times".[14]
"A loupin' on stane is a very good thing,
For a man that is stiff, for a man that is auld,
For a man that is lame o' the leg or the spauld,
Or short o' the houghs, to loup on his naggie;
So said Tam o' Crumstane, unbousome and baggie;
And mountin' the stane at Gibbie's house-end,
Like a man o' great pith, wi' a grane, and a stend
He flew owre his yaud, and fell i' the midden!
Standing stones, stone rows, etc.
At
Eskdalemuir in
Dumfries and Galloway, the remains of a 'stone avenue' are known as the Loupin' Stanes due to the similarity with said structures.[15] The Wolfcleuchhead, 'Loupin' Stone', Mounting Steps or Mounting Block is in the parish of Roberton, Scottish Borders. This stone bears two carved heads and lettering; on the other the name 'Wolfcleuchead'.[16] These names have arisen either from the appearance or the actual re-use of these stones.
Examples and sites of mounting blocks
In
Aberlady,
East Lothian there was a Loupin' on stane with six steps. It figures in a 1935 photograph in the Valentine collection held by the St. Andrew's Photographic Archive.[17]
The kirk of Saint Dodins (NT 2832 7261) at
Duddingston in
Edinburgh still has its Loupin-an-stane.[13]
East Kilbride in
Lanarkshire has an ancient Coaching Inn which is still in use today. Outside the inn is the "Loupin' on Stane", used by coast passenger and horse riders to assist in mounting and dismounting.[12]
At the front of
Rowallan Castle in Ayrshire stood a perfect example of an old loupin-on-stane.[18]
In front of
Jedburgh's Bank of Scotland branch, in the grounds, is the "Loupin' - on - stane". At one time, this was the house of one of
Sir Walter Scott’s friends, Sheriff Shortreed.[19]
Outside the Old Person's Cabin in the main street of
Kilmaurs in
East Ayrshire is a large sandstone block which was a horse-block or Loupin'-on-stane. This large sandstone block also has a concavity in its upper surface which is reminiscent of the '
plague stones' which would be filled with
vinegar into which money could be placed either as gifts to the church or as gifts to the sick. It has possibly been reused, however no local traditions survive concerning it. An example of a plague stone used by lepers survives at
Greystoke village church in
Cumbria.
Outside the Cellars Inn at the seaside village of
Maidens in
South Ayrshire were a set of Loupin stanes which are said to have been used by
Robbie Burns.[20]
On the shores of
Loch Lomond, this old priory is the scene of a curse, for after the
Battle of Culloden in 1746, where Bonnie Prince Charlie had his Jacobite uprising quashed, the
Marquess of Tullibardine fled for his life. He came to
Ross Priory and asked James Buchanan, 5th of Ross, for a safe house. James however secretly sent word to
Dumbarton Castle and King George’s soldiers duly arrived and took him away as a prisoner. The Marquess called to Buchanan with a curse There will be Murrays on the Braes of Atholl land when there’s ne’er a Buchanan at the Ross. In fulfilment of that curse, all three sons of that marriage died before their father- the last of them breaking his neck at the “loupin’ stane” at the front door.[22]
The old village of Rossie in what is now
Perth and Kinross, was demolished by the 7th
Earl of Kinnaird about 1795 when constructing a park for Rossie Priory. All that remains are the parish church, a fine market cross which stood in the centre of the village and a stone called the 'Loupin-on Stane' at Map reference: NO 2921 3072. The Loupin-on stane formerly stood by the village inn door.[23]
At Mertoun Kirk, beside the driveway up to the church, is a red sandstone loupin an stane with a set of steps up the back allowing the rider to come forward some 4 feet above ground level. Unusually it has a side wall, acting as a 'hand rail', to help the person mounting.[7]
On the Isle of Portland, an ancient mounting block opposite the site of the Crown Farm, Easton.
A Welsh example of a mounting block at Tanylan near
Ferryside in
Carmarthenshire has a set of steps leading up to a platform with the gable end of the house on the persons right-hand side. It stands on two short wall supports and the space below was used as a dog kennel.
An English example of a mounting block stands outside a former public house on Welsh Row in
Nantwich,
Cheshire. It has four steps cut from a single stone block and probably dates from the 17th or 18th century.[24]
^Gordon, Anne (1988). To move with the times : the story of transport and travel in Scotland. Aberdeen : The University Press.
ISBN0-08-035080-1. Page 114
^Martin, Daniel (2016). Upper Clydesdale. A History and Guide Edinburgh : The Birlinn Press.
ISBN9781780273976. Page 124
^Gordon, Anne (1988). To move with the times : the story of transport and travel in Scotland. Aberdeen : The University Press.
ISBN0-08-035080-1. Page 114
^
abcdBook of the British Countryside. Pub. London : Drive Publications, (1973). p. 302.
^Strawhorn, John and Boyd, William (1951). The Third Statistical Account of Scotland. Ayrshire. Pub.
^Gordon, Anne (1988). To move with the times : the story of transport and travel in Scotland. Aberdeen : The University Press.
ISBN0-08-035080-1. Page 109
^"an irregular rough hewn block of limestone which once served as a mounting block for horses."The Treaty Stone — National Inventory of Architectural Heritage website, accessed 23 October 2007
^MacGibbon, T. and Ross, D. (1887-92). The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, 5v, Edinburgh, Vol. 3, P. 502.
^Westwood, Jennifer (1985), Albion. A Guide to Legendary Britain. London: Grafton Books.
ISBN0-246-11789-3. p. 241.