Archaeology Notes

Event ID 647472

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/647472

NB23SW 6 2297 3362 and 2293 3360.

A destroyed stone circle, consisting of at least eleven large pillar stones which have all been over-thrown, lies on the summit of the rocky ridge, Druim nan Eum (NB 229 339). Several of the stones are 10' in length and 4' in breadth. It is impossible to define the original situations of the stones, but their present position seems to indicate that there had been an outer ring of not less than seven pillars and an inner ring of four.

The west side of the ridge shows a roughly vertical face, so weathered that fine slabs of large size could easily be split off by wedges. This is considered by local people to be the quarry which provided the stones for the Callanish and adjoining circles (see NB23SW 1-4).

RCAHMS 1928, visited 1914.

At NB 2293 3360, on the W side of Druim nan Eum, there is a rock face, about 140m in length, from which stone has evidently been quarried, and several loose slabs remain.

On the rocky knoll to the E, at NB 2297 3362, are the 'pillar stones' described as a destroyed stone circle by RCAHMS, but there is no evidence that these stones have ever been set up. The level out-crop here has obviously had slabs prised from it and as some of the stones appear to be propped up ready for removal, it is more likely that they were prepared here for setting up elsewhere (e.g. Callanish). Some of them exhibit the typical trimmed top of many standing stones.

This site may therefore be similar to Vestra Fiold, Orkney, which is considered to be the quarry for the Ring of Brogar, Maeshowe, etc. (cf HY22SW 7)

Visited by OS (R L) 26 June 1969.

Excavation of this stone circle involved the removal of a covering blanket of peat and revealed that the circle comprised an outer ring of seventeen stones and an inner ring of five. Though at least two of the stones are missing, all of them had fallen, having been quarried on site and no more than chocked upright with packing stones directly onto the bedrock. The packing stones, fallen monoliths, some of which are broken, and the outcrops from which they were quarried remain exposed.

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, SPH) 29 August 2009