Archaeology Notes

Event ID 670587

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/670587

NJ82SW 1 8229 2493.

(NJ 8229 2493) Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of) :

Cist found AD 1820 (TI). (NJ 8232 2492)

Human Remains found AD 1820 (NAT)

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1928)

'It is said that much larger blocks of stone were cut up and carried away ...' In the same place was a large cairn, most of which was removed, in one part of which was found, about 1820, a stone coffin about 3 to 4 feet long, containing 'ashes and unctuous matter'. Human remains have also been found about 10 yards east of the circle.

Name Book 1867.

The stone circle at Shelden consists of six stones, between 5 and 6 feet high, and a seventh stone 8 feet 2 inches high, arranged in a 'broad oval'. There are another nine flat stones scattered around the circle. The interior of the circle is stony but shows no signs of a cairn.

F R Coles 1902.

The seven upright stones described by Coles (1902) are surrounded by a low modern stone wall; the area enclosed has been used as a dump for stones from field clearance, so that it is impossible to separate the "nine flat stones" from more recent deposits.

The five western standing stones are of similar size and shape and form a circle 23.2m in diameter. The modern wall runs along the western circumference of this circle and a low overgrown ridge of stones can just be traced on the east. The circle probably enclosed the large cairn mentioned by the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) (1867).

A much larger stone stands just to the north of the circle, and 17.7m to the SE is a stone similar in size to those in the circle but triangular in shape.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 5 March 1964.

(Name cited as Sheldon Stone Circle). This stone circle is situated on a knoll at an altitude of 180m OD, and commands a view in all directions.

NMRS, MS/712/81.