Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016648
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016648
The interpretation of this monument is somewhat problematical: it is frequently described as a stone circle, but is more likely to be a localised type of cairn dating from the second or third millennium BC. At present the site consists of a low mound of stones about 13.5m in diameter surrounded by an intermittent ring of boulders. These arc graded in height with the smaller stones lying on the east and five particularly large stones set on the west, close to the track. 19th century records show that the intelior has been disturbed and that at one time it was clearer of stones than it is today.
Without excavation it is impossible to disentangle the complex histories of sites such as Auchagallon, and it is all too easy to try to pigeon-hole them into existing schemes of classification. The wide range in the heights of the stones of the ring indicates that it is not a true stone circle in the normally accepted sense, and on balance, the grading of the stones, their intemlittent spacing and the presence of a mound suggests that the site is a cairn dating to the late neolithic or early bronze age. For another example of this Arran type of cairn sce Moss Farm Road (no. 95.1).
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
