Field Visit
Date 23 June 1999
Event ID 635315
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/635315
The wreck of this recumbent stone circle lies on the NE side of the public road a little to the E side of the summit of Candle Hill, a low ridge overlooking the River Urie to the SE of Old Rayne. In the early 19th century, when James Skene measured it, the circle comprised at least ten stones, but today only eight remain, all bar one lying flat around the edges of a low swelling some 26m across. The recumbent (2), a large trapezoidal slab measuring up to 3.85m in length by 2.1m in breadth, has fallen onto its back on the S side of the ring and what was its even summit now forms the N side. There is at least one weathered cupmark near the centre of its upturned face, while three possible examples are arranged in a rough arc near its S side and would formerly have been at the foot of the stone; the only other cupmarks on the ring are three faint examples on the southern fragment of the W flanker (1) and another on the tip of the orthostat on the NNW (6). The two flankers, both of which are now about 2.75m in length, have suffered at the hands of stone-breakers and are lying prostrate (1 & 3). Indeed, the western has been split into at least two pieces since 1901 and comparison with the measurement of 3.3m in overall length taken by Coles in that year suggests that other pieces may be missing; work on removing a further fragment from the W edge of the S section was evidently abandoned before the task was completed. The N section exhibits the deeply cut initials GF. A wedge-socket at the E end of the eastern flanker (3) suggests that this too has been cut down. The single orthostat that remains standing is on the SE (4) and has had a lucky escape, as can be seen from the iron wedges embedded in several of the fissures in its outer face; moreover, its profile shows that at least two large chunks of rock have been removed from its WSW side. Of the other four orthostats (5–8 ), at least one (8) is displaced, now lying immediately N of the W flanker, and it is not clear how close to their sockets the other three lie; the earliest record of the diameter of the circle by James Skene is in the order of 15.5m, while Charles Dalrymple put it at about 18m, both considerably less than the circle of 26.5m that best fits the stones in their present positions. This bigger diameter, however, coincides with a swelling in the surface of the field revealed by profiles measured across the ring, particularly that from N to S (X–X1). Despite the complete absence of any cairn material in the plough-soil in the interior of the circle, this swelling is likely to be an artificial mound, within which Charles Dalrymple discovered a large central pit; the stones of the circle apparently stood upon the skirts of this mound (see discussion below). The purpose of a deeply embedded boulder (A) behind the E flanker is not known. It possibly belonged to a later structure that once incorporated the recumbent setting (below).
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW and KHJM) 23 June 1999
