Field Visit

Date 2009

Event ID 609715

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/609715

NB 317 292 For many years the tip of one megalith of the stone circle has been identifiable protruding from 1.1m deep peat. It is not vertical, but at an angle, suggesting that the megalith leans at a slope of about c45° outwards from the circle. Peat cutting in 2009 reached the base of the megalith and removed half of its socket hole. Eight packing stones were partially or totally exposed, of which at least three are now dislodged. They are up to 0.32 x 0.21 x 0.32m in size. Only part of the upper face of the megalith was exposed. It is 0.70m wide at the base of the peat bank, up to 0.63m high and 0.10m thick at one edge. With the exposed tip of the megalith 0.45m long, 0.77m hidden in uncut peat, 0.20m below

the base of the cut peat, the megalith must be at least 2.05m tall. A gritty peat halo indicates disintegration of the surface of the megalith. The packing stones are in two or more layers, as at another megalith at Achmore stone circle. There may have been 0.2–0.4m of peat growth when the megalith was erected, the softness of the peat creating the need for the extra support of two levels of packing stones. Peat has grown more around the megalith than elsewhere, forming a mound 1.1m deep rather than 0.55m. This natural phenomenon was also noted at Druim Dubh stone circle (DES 1992, 84). There is the opportunity for excavation of the remaining half of the socket hole, with identification of the cut for the socket hole, pollen analysis, radiocarbon dating etc, before further destruction by weathering and peat cutting. This is the last megalith at Achmore, Callanish 22, where such an opportunity remains.

M R Curtis 2009