Field Visit
Date 3 May 2005
Event ID 635270
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/635270
This recumbent stone circle is now enclosed with a wire fence. It occupies a position in a field on the gentle slope dropping away to the SE from the summit of the low hill NW of Mains of Hatton. Measuring roughly 23m from ENE to WSW by 21m transversely overall, it is oval on plan and originally comprised at least twelve stones, nine of which remain, though all bar two of these are now lying prone. The recumbent (2), which is on the SSE, measures about 2.1m in length and is one of the two stones still in place, but its summit has been broken off and it now stands only 1.15m in height. One of the fragments from the summit lies nearby on the WNW (2a) and has been a gatepost, the stumps of two square-sectioned iron fittings in its W face betraying its use (see below); a smaller fragment (2b) has been split off the back of the recumbent’s W end. Both the flankers have suffered similar attention, but while the eastern of the pair (3) has merely lost its N end, the western (1) has been reduced in every dimension and now lies displaced to the S of its original position. Three other large stones lie prostrate around the recumbent setting, though the geological survey indicates that none of them is derived from the recumbent or either of its flankers. One (B) has been tailored as a second gatepost and has a bolt-hole visible immediately W of the spectacular veneer of quartz on its N face. The other two are also quarried fragments, the one lying W of the setting (A) exhibiting a possible fractured face on its E, and the other, a boulder of orange and milky quartz on the NE (C); a shot-hole is visible in a small fragment (not labelled on plan) between the two detached fragments of the recumbent. Of the six orthostats in the ring, only the stump on the WNW (8) is in its socket, but the circle was almost certainly graded (cf Barnatt 1989, 292), both the height and spacing of the orthostats reducing from S to N. Like the recumbent setting, the orthostats are mainly grey in colour, the exception being a stone of rose quartz on the NNE (6). The interior gives the impression that it is slightly dished, but this is imperceptible on the sections and may simply be the result of cultivation in and around the stones.
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW and KHJM) 3 May 2005
