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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 694204
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/694204
NO89SW 6 83226 90655
See also NO89SW 7, NO89SW 8, NO89SW 9.
This ring-cairn and its surrounding stone-circle are situated 80m NW of NO89SW 9. The cairn measures 10.2m in diameter over all by 0.6m in height; the interior is at least 2.4m in diameter but only four kerbstones (slabs up to 0.8m by 0.2m and 0.6m in height) survive. The outer kerb is composite, comprising a ring of kerbstones which incorporates a series of pillar-stones and a three-stone setting; twenty-five kerbstones are visible and they are probably graded in height with the tallest of the surviving stones(0.6m) on the SW and the lowest (0.3m) on the NE. Originally there were probably seven pillars (ranging from 0.8m to 1.1m in height) three are still upright (SE, E, ENE), one is leaning (NW), one is fallen (WNW) and two are missing (NE and N). The three-stone setting lies on the SSW and consists of a pair of uprights flanking a boulder 0.5m in height; the E slab measures 1.4m by 0.4m at the base and 1.2m in height, the W slab 0.9m by 0.4m and 0.7m in height. The pillars were probably graded in height, with the lowest on the N, where they were also more closely spaced. Set in the body of the cairn behind the stone setting there are two upright slabs and a boulder which suggest the presence of a buried feature, possibly a funnel-shaped passage, within the mound. The stone circle is 13.9m in diameter but only five stones remain; two are upright (SSW and NNE), two fallen (NNW and WNW) and one has been reduced to a stump (ESE). The SSW stone (0.8m by 0.3m at the bsae and 1.4m high) probably forms the E element of a pair of stones set opposite the three-stone setting on the kerb of the cairn; the W stone is missing, but a small stone 1.2m in length, which lies adjacent to the E stone, may have been set between them. The spacing of the surviving stones, and three possible stone holes on the W suggests that there were originally thirteen stones in the circle; they were probably set closer together around the N, with the smallest (0.8m high) on the NNE directly opposite across the cairn from the stone settings on the SSW.
Name Book 1864; J Ritchie 1923; A S Henshall 1963; A Thom, A S Thom and A Burl 1980; RCAHMS 1984.
