Blue Cairn Of Ruthven
Cairn (Period Unassigned), Axe Hammer (Stone)
Site Name Blue Cairn Of Ruthven
Classification Cairn (Period Unassigned), Axe Hammer (Stone)
Canmore ID 17016
Site Number NJ40SE 19
NGR NJ 4514 0258
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/17016
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Logie-coldstone
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Kincardine And Deeside
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ40SE 19 4514 0258
(NJ 4514 0258) Blue Cairn (NAT)
OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1902)
The Blue Cairn of Ruthven was a huge pyramidal pile of stones, 280 feet across from E to W and 140 N to S. It was almost entirely removed between 1913 and 1914 for road mending when a stone hammer axe weighing 4 1/2lbs was found.
There remains still a circular platform of stones and earth, standing 1 or 2ft high, which had extended a couple of yards beyond the nearly circular base of the cairn. On the eastern end there are some arrangements of stones that suggest the existence of prehistoric shelters.
A Ogston 1931.
At the site, at the corners of 4 cultivated fields, is a natural knoll crossed by the walls of the fields. Any remains there may be of the Blue Cairn are masked by tumble from the walls and by large quantities of field clearance deposited on the knoll. Ogston's 'prehistoric shelters' are now an unintelligible mass of boulders, but they were almost certainly modern.
Visited by OS (R L), 24 October 1968.
This cairn was formerly situated on a moderate S-facing slope.
NMRS, MS/712/36.
