Archaeology Notes

Event ID 672110

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/672110

NJ95SW 2 93674 54479.

(NJ 9367 5447) Stone Circle (NR)

OS 6" map, (1959).

The remains of a recumbent stone circle, all the stones of which were removed about 1830 and some of which were replaced, but not in their original positions.

F R Coles 1904.

The stones of the recumbent stone circle were removed in 1965 during tree-felling operations, and are now in a pile a few metres to the SE. All that remains is a low turf-covered circular bank c 20.0m in diameter, in the S arc of which a large stone protrudes through the turf. Within the bank, and placed eccentrically, is a vague circular bank c 6.0m in diameter. The circle is located on a false crest below the summit of a rounded hill.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 20 March 1967.

Air photographs: AAS/94/06/G15/21-4.

NMRS, MS/712/21.

(Location cited as NJ 9367 5447: nominated as Site of Regional Significance).

This recumbent stone circle is situated on a crest at an altitude of 85m OD; the grey granite stones are of local origin. All the stones except the recumbent and its flankers were pulled down by a tenant farmer in 1830. Mr Fraser (later Lord Lovat), the landowner, ordered them to be replaced but this was done wrongly, and the circle was re-erected to the S of the recumbent. A landscaped earthern bank was built around this ring.

In 1960 every one of the stones was removed. The recumbent and flankers were subsequently replaced but taken away during tree-felling operations in 1965.

Excavations by A Burl in 1979 revealed that the original sitaution of the circle was immediately to the N, although the recumbent and its flankers were in their prehistoric location. Quartz, flints and sherds of prehistoric were found during the excavation and a cremation lay within the prehistoric bank to the NE of the recumbent. Several hammer- and rubbing-stones were found along with a cup-and-ring-marked stone which was buried in a small stone-lined pit on the N periphery of the central area. After excavation, the stones were replaced in their original positions and the circle reconstructed.

Further excavation was carried out by P Abramson in 1982 and a cremation set into the prehistoric bank of the circle has been dated by radiocarbon to 700 +/- 160 bc [reference not cited].

[Air photographic and newspaper references cited].

NMRS, MS/712/35, visited 6 August 1980.

The circle was being reconstructed during 1980-2.

Information from RCAHMS (CAA) 28 August 1985.

Re-erected by a team of volunteers in 1981.

C McKean 1990.