Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Archaeology Notes
Event ID 672694
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/672694
NK05NW 2 02758 57161.
(NK 0275 5716) Stone Circle (NR)
OS 6" map, (1959)
A recumbent stone circle, of which only 5 stones remain, inlcuding the recumbent stone, 10ft 10ins long, two massive blocks in situ (one the W pillar) and two prostrate and broken stones, one the E pillar. They are set into a complete circular bank, 45ft in diameter, the area enclosed being lower than the natural ground surface (Coles 1904). Calcined bones have been found within (TBFC 1887).
F R Coles 1904; Trans Buchan Fld Club 1887.
A recumbent stone circle, generally as described, except that the 'circular' bank is oval, and measures c.12.5m NW-SE by c.10.5m transversely.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (RL) 10 January 1969.
(Location cited as NK 0275 5716: nominated as Site of Regional Significance). This incomplete recumbent stone circle is situated on a shelf at an altitude of 40m OD. Only five stones remain, including the recumbent, two massive stone blocks in situ (one of them the W pillar) and two prostrate and broken stones (one of them the E pillar). They are set in an oval bank, the area enclosed being lower than the natural ground surface.
Excavation (in 1976) by A Burl revealed two phases. The first comprised a low oval bank of stones (12.8 by 10.8m) with a recumbent and nine standing stones around the perimeter of the bank. There was a ring-cairn in the central area with three cremation burials, and quartz fragments were found near the recumbent. In the second phase, the circle was wrecked, the standing being truncated apart from the recumbent and W flanker. The ring-cairn was levelled and a stone wall piled over the former bank and stone stumps to form an enclosed cremation cemetery. Charcoal associated with Beaker no. 4 of this phase has yielded radiocarbon determinations of 1500 +/- 80 BC (HAR-1849) and 1360 +/- 90 bc (HAR-1893).
The bank was reconstructed after excavation in 1976.
[GRC ground photographic imagery listed].
NMRS, MS/712/35 (visited 14 February 1997).
