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To the South of Cairnpapple by less than a mile, beside the road from there to Bathgate, there is a single standing stone. It is tempting to imagine the Galabraes stone as once included within a group of now solitary stones outlying Cairnpapple itself, some of which are still standing, such as those on the Northern side of Cairnpapple at Cathlaw, and the two on the Northern side of the Bathgate to Dechmont road, East of Cairnpapple.
In the above shots, the positioning of the Galabraes stone on the Southern side of Cairnpapple, flatly facing the Pentland Hills is shown. Moreover, they show the nature of the stone itself, with its Northern face (above left) smooth, and its Southern face (above right) rough-hewn.
In the above two shots, the width of the stone becomes clear along its East-West axis, with the sharper side facing East (above right) and the wider, rougher edge facing West (above left).
In 1903, archaeologist Fred Coles commented on the Galabraes stones as follows:
Proceeding westwards along the ridge, I came, at a considerably lower level, to another flattish spot, the crown of a sand-hillock, its sides sloping off rather steeply in all direction. Towards the S.W., and some 60 or 70 feet away, at the foot of the slope, lay two pieces of whinstone, very columnar in form, and evidently recently split. After measuring these two carefully, so as to be sure that their fractured ends corresponded, I found that when complete this stone would have measured 4 feet 6 and a half inches in length, and its thicker end would have girthed between 8 and 9 feet. The two fragments lay 27 feet apart. The larger and more cylindrically-shaped of the two lay just as if it had been heaved up and rolled over the crest of the sandy hillock above mentioned; and it would have been almost justifiable to point to the centre of that hillock-summit as the original position of the stone merely by the present position fo the latter in regard to the hillock. While debating these matters and putting up my note-book, I noticed a man crossing the field a few yards away. On intercepting him, I asked if he remembered when there were two stones on the ridge? He replied, they were both there a twelvemonth ago. Then I pointed to the fallen fragments and said, These were one stone? He replied, Yes, they were; the stone having been, in a mischievous mood, pitched over the brow. This man was the farmer of Gala Braes. He took me to the spot where the stone had stood, explaining that, owing to much trampling by sheep and cattle, the earth round the base of the stone had become loosened so as to render the stone itself insecure, and that thus it had fallen an easy prey to the wanton hands of some lads, whom, if he could find out, he would prosecute. Asked if any digging had ever been made at either of these stones, Mr Carlaw replied that many years ago and old Bathgate worthy know as "The Apostle" persuaded his (Carlaw's) father to dig at the base of the upper standing stone (the one at present erect), and they found human bones. The farm of Gala Braes has been in the tenancy of a Carlaw for upwards of a century.
We then measured from the site of the fallen stone to the centre of the erect stone, and found the distance to be 228 feet 7 inches. What precise archaeological relationship, therefore, these two stones bore to each other, is not a point upon which the present brief investigation can throw any light.'
The second stone is now only a stump, and can be found shortly to the South-west of the surviving stone:
