Field Visit
Date 16 October 1998
Event ID 635096
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/635096
Standing on a low rise in an arable field 340m WNW of the West Lodge of Castle Fraser, this well-known recumbent stone circle measures about 20.5m in diameter. It originally comprised the recumbent setting on the SSW (1–3) and eight orthostats (4–10), but one of the latter is missing on the NNE and three others (7, 9 & 10) were lying prostrate at the time of the survey; since then, in the spring of 2002, another orthostat (4) was knocked over in the course of cultivation and has been broken in two. The recumbent (2) is a block with an even summit and measures 2.25m in length by 1.55m in height. It fits snugly between the two flankers (1 & 3), which are 2.45m and 2.7m high respectively and appear to arc over the ends of the recumbent. The western is a relatively slender pillar standing flush with the front of the recumbent, whereas the eastern is a broader slab set back slightly and turned as if to trace the arc of the circle. The orthostats of the circle are evenly spaced, and though three stones are fallen their sizes lengths leave no doubt that they were designed to reduce in height from the flankers round towards the NE; there is a single cupmark on the N tip of the orthostat lying on the WSW (10). Within the grass-grown interior a low flat-topped mound can be seen, spread by ploughing to a maximum of 20.5m from ESE to WNW by 19.5m transversely and 0.6m in height. Excavation in 1856 by Charles Dalrymple showed that this is the remains of a ring-cairn with a central court about 4m in diameter (below). Nothing is now visible of the court, but three outer kerbstones protrude through the lip of the mound on the WSW, and the tops of another three can be seen a little further round to the N. They lie on a projected circumference about 16m in diameter, while another five larger kerbstones immediately behind the flankers show that its kerb turned outwards on this side to embrace the recumbent setting. There are two shallow depressions on the flat top of the ring-cairn, the northern of which has four boulders lying loose around its lip; these can be seen in the ploughed surface in a photograph taken in 1903 by James Ritchie, which also shows that the scarp that demarcates the N side of what is sometimes described as a raised platform behind the recumbent setting is an accident of plough damage to the rest of the mound rather than a feature of its construction.
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW, IGP and KHJM) 16 October 1998
