Archaeology Notes

Event ID 667943

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/667943

NJ54NW 12 5316 4564.

(NJ 5316 4565) Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of)

(NJ 5315 4564) Iron Stone (NR)

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1902)

A very distinct artificial mound, with four great stones, crowning a hill 400ft high. Two of the stones are prone on the slope of the mound, the third appears to have been moved off it entirely, while the fourth is the great Recumbent Stone poised securely upon several small flat blocks, this stone is called the Iron Stone, which gives off a clear metallic tone when struck. It is set absolutely vertical, on a base 8ft 10" long by 3ft 4" broad. Its extreme length is 11ft 7" and it stands 10" clear off the ground. There are traces of much weathered concentric rings on the NE, which may be artificial. Two other stones shown on the ground plan are the remains of an interior setting. They lie 9ft inward from the west end of the Recumbent Stone. All this western portion has been ploughed flat, so that the bank of the mound, the base of which on the east is fully 6ft below the true summit, here disappears. The prostrate block of whinstone on the extreme NW, measures 6ft 2" by 2ft 7" by 1ft 3". Of the other two, the one on the N measures 8ft by 2ft by 1ft 8". A space of 17ft 6" separates it from the other fallen block, the size of which is much the same. The conjectural diameter of the circle is 60ft.

F R Coles 1902.

There is a low mound contained within the stone circle the ground rising from the stones to the centre. Estimated height from the top of the mound to ground level at base of stones 4t.

OS Reviser (TGR) 23 September 1955.

The remains of Recumbent Stone Circle and Mound are as described by Coles (1902); except that one of the eastern stones appears to have been placed in position recently and only one of the internal stones can be seen protruding from the mound.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 5 February 1964.