Publication Account
Date 1995
Event ID 1016772
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016772
A remarkable setting of large stones, arranged in an unusual way as a long U-shape with one open end. Some 36 slabs or stumps survive, but some stones are missing, and there may originally have been around 54. The average size of the stones is about 1.2m to 1.5m, and the tallest is nearly 2m high. Many of the stones have been taller, but their tops have weathered and split off. The broad faces of the stones are set at right angles to the perimeter of the setting, in contrast to the practice at stone circles. Only one comparable monument is known, a ruinous U-shaped setting at Broubster, Caithness (ND 047608) [Canmore ID 7945]. The purpose of these settings is unknown, but their date is thought to be Bronze Age from their general similarity to stone circles.
Just outside the stones, close to their northeast corner and also along the east side, are some small slabs set on edge, which may be the remains of cist graves, perhaps added to the monument long after its initial purpose was forgotten. A short distance southeast of the stones, on a low hillock, are the remains of an earlier Neolithic round cairn with traces of a central chamber.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).
