Archaeology Notes

Event ID 667684

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/667684

NJ51NE 3 5651 1630

(NJ 5651 1630) Stone Circle (NR) Called Auld Kirk.

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1902)

Greystone, The Auld Kirk, the disturbed remains of a triple concentric circle of stones 33ft in diameter. The interior is quite flat and is enclosed by a rounded ridge, partly shaped on the outside into a dike.

The innermost circle, 28ft in diameter, is of long and rather narrow blocks set on edge of which eight are in situ: the middle circle is of broad massive stones, from 2ft 6ins to 3ft high, of which three remain: the outer ring is also of long, rather narrow stones, of which only two remain, set on what was originally the true base of the ridge.

There are no indications of a cist whithin the circle, and the date of its disturbance is not known.

F R Coles 1901.

All that remains at the site of this stone circle is a circular stony dyke, about 9.5 metres in diameter, surmounted by the remains of a ring of trees. The dyke does not appear to have been part of the original structure and was probably built at the time of the destruction of the circle and the planting of the trees. Mainly as planned by Coles (1901) but his assessment of the site as a triple concentric circle is suspect in that several of the larger stones are loose and obviously not in situ and some of the others merely the base of the dyke.

Resurveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RL) 12 September 1968.

Scheduled as 'Auld Kirk, ring cairn 150m E of Ardgathen...'

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 2 March 2007.