Measured Survey

Date 2003

Event ID 1105703

Category Recording

Type Measured Survey

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1105703

NB 396 541 A topographic survey was undertaken in March and April 2003 of the area occupied by Steinacleit cairn and stone circle. The site is difficult to interpret and has variously been described as a ruined chambered cairn, stone circle and homestead. What is clear is that the visible ruins represent at least two distinct phases of use. The nucleus of the site is the mutilated circular 'cairn', defined by a discontinuous kerb of edge-set slabs, which is best preserved around the N side. The body of the cairn comprises both loose and turf-covered stone that has been partly redistributed forming low banks that hint at an inner face. The centre of the cairn is hollowed out, the result of robbing and perhaps the insertion of some later domestic or agricultural structures. The arrangement of orthostatic stones on the E edge of the cairn, including four earthfast blocks within, are probably the remnants of such. Also on the SE, outside the cairn circle, are the vestigial remains of an oval structure, partly obscured by another stone spread.

The cairn is located within the SW corner of an oval enclosure that is most likely secondary to the cairn or homestead. The enclosure survives as a low earth and stone bank and incorporates a number of larger orthostats. The enclosure is broken along its S side adjacent to the cairn. A shorter stretch of bank of similar appearance encloses the N side of the cairn. Redundant peat cuttings encroach around the W end of the enclosure, and much of the site itself was only stripped of peat cover in the 1920s.

The enclosure may be contemporary with the first use of the site as a homestead, perhaps as a cattle enclosure. It does not appear defensive in nature.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

A Dutton 2003