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Field Visit
Date 15 April 1998
Event ID 635341
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/635341
This grass-grown recumbent stone circle is situated within a small plantation of mixed woodland on the summit of a hill overlooking Sunhoney from the NW. It measures 25m in overall diameter and comprises the recumbent setting and nine orthostats set out around the perimeter of a low cairn; all the stones bar the recumbent on the SW (2) are upright, and this is broken into two pieces. The larger piece is a slab measuring 5.2m in length by 1.4m in breadth. This now lies face down, and its even summit is set flush with the leading faces of the two flankers. It cannot have fallen into this position and has evidently been moved, a clear indication that the ring has undergone some restoration, probably, as will be shown below, in the 18th century. Furthermore, its W tip is caught behind the W flanker, and cannot have been dragged back into this position when the flanker was in place. There are at least 28 shallow cups on the upturned surface of the larger piece of the recumbent, and one on the smaller fragment lying displaced immediately to its NW. The two flankers (1 & 3) are of a similar size and shape, standing about 2.1m and 2.2m high respectively, and the tops of the rest of the orthostats are roughly graded to reduce in height from the SW, though unusually the lowest is on the ESE (6). There is no equivalent reduction in the spacing of the stones, which are set out fairly evenly along the line of a low ring-bank. Externally the height of the ring-bank has been exaggerated by the cultivation of the surrounding ground, and it forms the leading edge of a low platform encircling a roughly circular cairn some 20m in diameter. Although no kerbstones are visible, the perimeter of this cairn is quite well defined, extending outwards on the SW to meet the back of the recumbent setting.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, ATW, IGP and KHJM) 15 April 1998
