Publication Account

Date 2011

Event ID 886943

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/886943

RCAHMS, The Recumbent Stone Circles of Scotland

This cairn, which is situated on the east shoulder of a low ridge 750m west of Mains of Carnousie, lies in an area of ground formerly within the east margin of Whitehill Wood. It measures up to 17m across, but the centre was dug out before 1870 (Name Book, Banffshire, No. 13, p 53) and the rest is so heavily disturbed that it is not only difficult to differentiate the original cairn material from the field-cleared stones that have been added to it since, but those shown on a plan prepared by Alexander Thom are no longer immediately recognisable on the ground (Thom et al 1980, 234–5). On the south-west, however, well beyond the edge of the cairn, there is a huge erratic boulder which was first noted by Coles during a fleeting visit in 1902. Measuring 2.9m by 1.7m and 1.65m in height, this has itself been quarried and is now considerably smaller than the rough measurements of 3.5m in length by 2.4m in height given by Coles (1903a, 140); a shot-hole can be seen just below its summit and a shallow hollow in the ground to its north is probably the place from where the bulk of the boulder has been removed. Despite drawing a comparison with the Carlin Stone at Cairn Riv, which lies no more than 4km to the south, Coles did not include Cairn Ennit in any of his lists of recumbent stone circles. On the strength of this large erratic on its south-west, however, Coles’ view that Cairn Riv was a late form of recumbent stone circle has been transposed by Burl to embrace Cairn Ennit (Burl 1995, 111; 2000, 419, Knc 19), though Barnatt recognised that the relationship between the cairn and the erratic might be fortuitous (1989, 307–8, no. 6:105). The occasion of Coles’ visit was to record a stone circle shown on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map about 140m to the north of Cairn Ennit (Banffshire 1874, xvi); this has been removed since and its site dense plantation of conifers and it was only with some difficulty that he finally located what he believed to be its site. However, he almost certainly lost his bearings amongst the trees and bracken, for his plan showing seven stones lying in a rough circle about 9m across roughly conforms to a probably fortuitous collection of stones planned by Thom a mere 15m to the north of Cairn Ennit (Coles 1903a, 137–40; Thom et al 1980, 234–5). Visited 20 May 2005