Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016505

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016505

The three small, unearthly, rings of quartzite blocks that glisten in the sleet and sparkle in the sun high on the south facing shoulder of Kirk Hill represent two trends in the burial and ritual monuments of the North-east that run back over 1500 years. The first, seen here in the diameters of the rings of between 6 and 7m, is the gradual reduction in the size of the feature (compare the great single ring cairn at Loanhead, no. 98). The second is the use of quartzite, a notable characteristic of the earlier recumbent srone circles and Clava cairns, at Logie Newron translated into hefty blocks up to 1.3m in length. Kerb cairns are often found in groups, as here, and their kerbsrones are frequently disproportionately large when compared with the flat interiors of the cairns. There are few, however, so striking or so dramatically unreal as this Buchan group.

The location of the Roman marching camp of Ythan Wells on the hill to the south (N] 655382) can be appreciated from the kerb cairns.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).