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Field Visit
Date 11 November 1998 - 12 November 1998
Event ID 635313
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/635313
What was probably once a fine recumbent stone circle enclosing a ring-cairn has been reduced to little more than a single upright stone (A) on a S-facing terrace just above the improved fields dropping down to Whiteside. Apart from the stone, all that can be seen is a ragged bank some 4m in thickness by 0.4m in height, which encloses an area about 25m across and probably roughly marks the perimeter of the circle, either representing a rim of undisturbed cairn material that extended beyond the ring of orthostats or simply rubble discarded when the circle was demolished (see below); the latter explanation may account for the low stony scarp visible in the NE quadrant of the interior. The stone itself is 1.25m high and stands in a gap in this bank on the SSE, where there is also a small patch of compacted stony ground that may be the last remnants of cairn material. Some of the stones were carried off to a croft at Denwell (Coles 1900, 172–3), but others were incorporated into the adjacent dyke, including one large slab (B) measuring 1.25m in length by 1m in height and 0.35m in thickness, which bears a passing resemblance to the stone in the recumbent setting sketched by Christian Maclagan (1875, pl xxvii; and below). A small cup-and-ring marked slab noted by James Ritchie close by the surviving upright (A) is now lost (1918, 90–1, 121).
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW, IGP and KHJM) 11-12 November 1998
