Archaeology Notes

Event ID 685315

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/685315

NO20SE 5 28198 03123

(NO 2816 0312) Standing Stones (NAT)

OS 6" map (1947)

NO 2819 0312 - A Class I henge monument associated with two standing stones. The site was discovered from air-photographs by Dr K A Steer and surveyed by R J C Atkinson in 1950.

Traces of the enclosing bank exist to a height of 6 to 8 inches on the north and east; its original diameter could have been about 280 feet. The two standing stones are of undressed sandstone and lie some 45 feet apart. That on the north-west, 6 feet 7 inches high, was probably one of a pair set in the entrance-gap; the other, 5 feet 3 inches high, the survivor of a ring of stones set some 20 feet within the ditch and concentric with it.

R J C Atkinson 1952.

The extent of this henge cannot be definitely ascertained, only the two standing stones and a wide stony spread of stone can be seen in a ploughed field.

Visited by OS (RD), 14 April 1972.

The site was totally excavated in advance of projected housing construction in 1977 and 1978. The excavation revealed clear evidence for the existence of a main timber circle, 25m in diameter, set concentrically to the enclosure ditch. This timber circle was associated with a substancial assemblage of grooved ware as well as other material. There is some evidence to suggest that five other concentric timber circles exist on the site which, where any evidence survives, would appear to be palisade-type structures. Massive natural erosion and agricultural damage to the site has also meant that the precise plan of stone settings on the site will never be known but there is evidence to suggest that two stone circles have existed on the site one outwith the other with the western entrance to the site marked by a single portal stone. There is some evidence to suggest that the stone settings are later than the timber structures.

Close to the centre of the monument a slab-covering pit concealed an inhumation of a young adult accompanied by a handled beaker.

After the excavation the site was restored, the ditches re-cut, and the stones re-erected.

R J Mercer 1982.

A small excavation was conducted to re-investigate the relationship of henge ditch to natural gully.

C J Russell-White 1988.

Further excavation across S section of ditch, December 1987.

(Revised final plan issued).

R J Mercer, G J Barclay, D Jordan and C J Russell-White 1989.