Watenan

ND34SW 515 31728 42045

The remains of these stone rows and a small cairn are situated on a gentle SE-facing slope dropping down from a low rise into the gully of the burn that flows into the northern tip of Loch Watenan. The cairn stands on the crest of the slope, immediately upslope from a re-used hollow trackway that extends NE from a gateway in the new fence to the SW. The slope is also traversed from E to W by a second hollowed trackway, which cuts obliquely through the rows. At least four rows can be identified, though even the best preserved, to the S of the second trackway, comprises no more than four upright stones, terminating on the SE in a slab measuring some 0.8m in length. The rest of the stones are scattered to the N of this trackway, and one exposed on its lip down to the level of the subsoil is probably fairly typical, measuring 0.45m in length by 0.1m in thickness and 0.3m in height; a packing-stone in its socket is also exposed. The other upright stones protrude no more than 0.2m above the ground and are largely lost in the regenerating heather. Other rows may have lain to the NE, where two stones, one leaning the other prostrate, are visible towards the top of the slope. The cairn is barely recognisable as such, forming a low oval mound measuring a maximum of 5m from NNE to SSW by 3m transversely. Four thin slabs protruding on edge through the mound on the NW probably belong to a kerb, but they are not set out on the arc of a circle and two appear to form a straight line. A pit dug into the centre of the mound has exposed the SE and SW sides of a cist. The disposition of the upright and prostrate slabs across the slope indicates that the rows have been heavily robbed, probably at the same time that the cist was exposed in the cairn. A pile of slabs lying towards the SE end of the rows has presumably been cleared more recently from the line of the adjacent trackway. Still more recent disturbance is represented by two narrow machine cuts on the slope, one of them cutting through the lip of the trackway by the pile of slabs. G Watson first discovered the rows following muirburn; P Humphreys subsequently planned them in March 1997.

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH,GBS) 21 February 2007

Surveyed by differential GPS