Field Visit
Date 12 November 2013
Event ID 1025099
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1025099
This recumbent stone circle is situated in rough, gently sloping ground, on the crest of a high S-facing scarp commanding extensive views over the Howe of Cromar. Little is left of the stone circle, but the massive ring-cairn which it once enclosed is comparatively well-preserved. Nevertheless, the stone circle is recalled in a small broken orthostat on the NE (4), a broken orthostat displaced within the ring-cairn's interior (A), and in two sockets either side of a broad shallow hollow on the SW (1, 2 and 3). The latter constitutes almost all that is left of the recumbent setting - although three large fragments probably deriving from each of these stones have been identified close-by (1a, 2a and 3). The circle measures about 26m in diameter, which reflects the overall diameter of the ring-cairn, as the orthostats appear to have been erected at the edge of a very narrow cobbled strip immediately against the latter's outer kerb. They are likely to have been roughly graded in height, as the NE orthostat (4) is short in comparison to its displaced companion (A), while the surviving fragments from the recumbent setting are relatively large and chunky (1a, 2a, 3a). It appears that the stones of the ring may all have been a grey magnatite, in contrast to the recumbent stone which is a pink felsite. The monument is oriented SW (centre line azimuth: 237 degrees) and, unusually, the NE stone (4) is situated on the same axis.
The ring-cairn is disfigured by a series of parallel grooves produced by forestry ploughing in preparation for replanting. It is polygonal on plan and varies between 7m thick and 0.7m high on the NE and 4m thick and 0.5m high on the SW, where there is a gap up to 2m wide immediately behind the former position of the recumbent. There is a near continuous outer kerb of slabs and boulders on the W, while individual kerbstones are visible elsewhere about its circuit and others were found in excavation on the ENE (see below). There is no evidence that these were graded in size and no kerbstones were visible within the interior before the turf was removed on the N. The central court, which measures up to 17m in diameter, is partly filled with stones and boulders.
Although originally classified as a possible hut-circle (Cooper 1998), Bradley and Clarke's limited excavations in 2013 not only identified the remains of this complex multi-period monument as those of a recumbent stone circle, but also provided some insight into its sequence of construction. The earliest element, dating to the Early Bronze Age, was a circular stone wall, characterised by a rubble core measuring 2.4m thick and 0.4m high, with a crest that may have been stepped. This structure was subsequently augmented with an outer bank of rubble, thickest and highest on the NE and again possibly stepped, which was delimited externally by kerbstones firmly wedged either side by boulders. At this point the succession becomes less insecure, but the whole of this structure was covered with boulders filling the central court to the top of the inner kerb and the recumbent stone circle was introduced. Interference at the centre of the monument occurred in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, with the insertion of two small, charcoal-filled pits lined with boulders, situated immediately E of a scorched area of the natural ground surface associated with the debris from a pyre. This consisted of burnt soil intermixed with oak and alder charcoal, together with human bone. Each of these features was covered by a layer of small boulders before the whole of the court was later sealed beneath a scatter of broken quartz, which increased in density towards the centre and SW.
Finds included a fragment of Beaker from the old ground surface beneath the monument and five flint pieces from its surface. Subsequent analysis showed that the cremated bone retrieved from one of the charcoal-filled pits and from amongst the pyre debris probably represented in each case only one individual.
The earliest of a series of radiocarbon dates from charcoal on the old ground surface beneath the ring-cairn are thought to predate the monument (2460-2200 BC), but others may more closely reflect its initial construction (2290-1980 BC). The boulder capping was introduced at some point after the early 3rd millennium BC, the secondary pits before the mid-late 2nd millennium BC (1500-1300), while the final capping of quartz was in place after the end of the 2nd millennium BC.
Visited by RCAHMS, Survey and Recording (ATW, AMcC, GFG), 12 November 2013.
