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Field Visit
Date 14 April 1998
Event ID 635157
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/635157
The recumbent setting of this stone circle is one of the most impressive, standing in a ride cutting through the coniferous plantation that cloaks the broad summit of a low hill. Measuring about 20m in diameter, the circle encloses a well-preserved cairn and originally comprised up to thirteen stones, though only eight now remain. Of these the recumbent setting (1–3) and those on the SE (4), NNE (5) and WSW (8) are upright, one on the WNW (7) leans steeply outwards, and another on the NW (6) has fallen. The recumbent boulder (2) is situated on the SSW of the ring and measures 4.15m in length and 1.25m in height. Its summit is relatively even, rising gently towards the E, and on the outer face there are at least two possible cupmarks, situated to the W of the natural indentations known as The Devil’s Hoofmarks (see below). The two flankers, which are the tallest stones in the ring, are of roughly the same height, standing up to 2.7m high, but whereas the eastern is a slender square-sectioned pillar splaying from its foot to a flat top, the western tapers upwards to a blunt point (Bradley 2005, 67). This contrast in their shapes is repeated in the way they are placed, for while both are set back from the leading edge of the recumbent, the western projects the long axis of the setting, and the eastern, which is also fitted so tightly to the end of the recumbent that it leans inwards, is turned slightly as if to trace the arc of the circle. The circle appears to have been graded to reduce in height and spacing from the flankers on the SSW round to the NNE, each of the surviving orthostats stand within the margin of a flat-topped cairn. The latter measures up to 22m in diameter and 0.8m in height; around the eastern half the edge of the mound forms a fairly sharply defined scarp, but this has been flattened out on the W by the passage of an old track. A single kerbstone protrudes through the body of the mound on the NE, while a roughly rectangular slab lies at the centre.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, ATW, IGP and KHJM) 14 April 1998
