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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 694287
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/694287
NO79SW 2 7171 9159
This recumbent stone circle encloses a heavily-robbed ring-cairn on a gentle N-facing slope 730m S of Eslie farmhouse. The ring-cairn measures 17.7m in diameter over all by 0.5m in maximum height and encloses a central court 6m in diameter; at least eleven outer kerbstones and twelve inner kerbstones (up to 0.6m high) are visible. The recumbent, which has a triangular section and measures 2.8m by 1m at the base and 1.3m in height, lies with its flankers on the line of the surrounding circle on the S; three boulders set in a line behind the E flanker may be the remains of a kerb linking the recumbent setting to the ring-cairn, and there is also a small slab set upright at the foot of the W face of the W flanker. The surrounding circle measures about 22.5m in diameter and has been reduced to five upright stones from a probable total of nine. The stones do not appear to be regularly graded in height, but the tallest (1.9m) is on the SW and the shortest (0.9m) is on the NNE. In 1873 excavations in the ring-cairn revealed at least three 'dark marks.. the length of a not tall human being' together with small pieces of bone, and also a cist 'built of common boulder stones,..from 8 to 10 inches (0.2m to 0.25m) in diameter'; the cist contained 'black marks and pieces of bone'.
Name Book 1864; R A Smith 1880; F R Coles 1900; A Thom, A S Thom and A Burl 1980; RCAHMS 1984, visited April 1984.
Air photographs: AAS/94/15/G28/30 and AAS/94/15/G29/1-6.
NMRS, MS/712/21.
