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Field Visit
Date 14 April 2005
Event ID 1109791
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1109791
A group of at least two ring-cairns, and possibly as many as four, is strung out over a distance of some 100m on the summit of Campstone Hill. Two of them have formal kerbs and are surrounded by stone circles (see also NO89SW 6), but the other two are little more than featureless ring-banks measuring about 8m in overall diameter (NO89SW 7-8). By and large, the cairns command an open aspect, which on the SE extends to the coast around Stonehaven, but the view from the ring-cairn at the SE end of the group is restricted by the rising ground to the NW, and is hidden from the summit. All lie in rough grazing, now partly colonised by gorse, amidst extensive remains of field-banks and clearance cairns.
This ring-cairn (NO89SW 9), the southern of the two surrounded by a stone circle, lies at the SE end of the group, but is set on slightly lower ground than the others, and has been badly damaged by stone robbing and the construction of a later enclosure, possibly a sheepfold, on its E side. The cairn is slightly oval on plan, and measures 15m from NNW to SSE by 13.5m transversely, though the line of its perimeter is difficult to determine. Nevertheless, a row of seven kerbstones survives on the SSW, and single kerbstones can be identified on the NNW, NNE, ENE, SSE and ESE. The row on the SSW includes three forming a straight line, which are more impressive than the rest, measuring between 0.8m and 1.07m in length, 0.21m and 0.43m in thickness and 0.51m and 0.64m in height. The internal court measures 4m in diameter, though only the kerbstones on the S appear to be in situ. Those demarcating the N side of the court appear to be modern walling, perhaps reconstituted after the excavation of 1965 (DES 1965, 24), and they do not appear in Henshall’s published account (1963a, Fig.105, 401).
The stone circle surrounding the cairn measures about 18.5m in diameter and may originally have comprised at least sixteen stones. Of those that now remain, all are grey in colour save for three that are pink granite. Where best preserved on the N, the stones are set between 2.2m and 2.6m apart, and range in height from 0.5m to 1.09m, though they do not appear to be graded regularly in height. Thirteen are in situ, two of them now reduced to stumps, and six are displaced, with a further two possible stones missing on the SE. On the NE, three of the stones are accommodated within the outer wall of the sheepfold, and the lower courses of a later wall can be seen linking those from the NE to the SW. This wall may continue on the SSE as a short stretch of grass-grown stony bank, joining the circle to another field-bank. The circle does not appear to be concentric with the outer kerb of cairn, and the two appear to converge on the NNE. A lot of loose stone lies scattered outside the circle on the SSW, and a small upright block of pink granite situated 12.5m to the WSW lies amongst a small heap of field-clearance.
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG) 14 April 2005
