Waulkmill
Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Waulkmill
Classification Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 17039
Site Number NJ40SE 4
NGR NJ 4753 0499
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/17039
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Logie-coldstone
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Kincardine And Deeside
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ40SE 4 4753 0499.
(NJ 4753 0499) Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6"map, (1959)
Only one stone, 5ft 8ins high, remains of a stone circle destroyed c.1835 when ten or eleven other large stones were removed to enable cultivation.
The surviving stone had projections from its two edges so that it resembled a cross, but they were knocked off when the circle was destroyed (A Ogston 1931).
F R Coles 1905; A Ogston 1931.
Situated on a low ridge in an undulating field, the remaining stone is c.1.6m high, c.1.1m wide, c.0.4m thick. No other evidence of a stone circle. The tradition of projections from the remaining stone still survives.
Visited by OS (R L) 17 October 1968.
Derek Travis of the OS believed that it was possibly Waulkmill to which Stuart (1855) referred when he wrote 'Descending from the Doune towards the village of Tarland, and on a rocky eminence, there stood, till lately, a circle of upright stones and near to it were found a few well-preserved arrow-heads of flint, along with a stone celt' (see NJ40NE 10). The stone axe and arrowhead presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1865 are some of the artefacts to which Stuart refers (NJ40NE 11).
Information from RCAHMS (ATW) 29 January 2009
J Stuart 1855
Excavation (15 September 2012 - 29 September 2012)
NJ 4753 0499 Work was undertaken 15–29 September 2012 to relocate a stone circle levelled by a farmer in the early 19th century and to compare its plan with that of its neighbour, Tomnaverie, which was excavated and restored in 1999 and 2000.
Approximately 30% of the 16m diameter circle fell within the excavated area. The estimated 12–14 monoliths had been built flush with its outer kerb, which formed the outer edge of a ring cairn with an open court at its centre. Unlike Tomnaverie, this monument was not a recumbent stone circle. There was no direct dating evidence, but a pit dug into the centre of the court contained a quantity of cremated bone whose position was marked by a setting of rounded pebbles. An unurned cremation burial was also found a short distance outside the monument.
The site had been occupied during the Neolithic period, and a pit containing sherds of Carinated Bowl was identified. It was used again during the Iron Age. In 1898 a grave containing a penannular brooch and a set of gaming pieces was discovered in a quarry 350m from the stone circle. The grave dated to the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Other artefacts from the same area may have been associated with this burial or with further burials. In 2012, a similar grave was recorded just outside the monument. It had almost exactly the same contents. A second grave was beside one of the monoliths. It contained two bronze rings and a cow’s jaw. In this case traces of a wooden coffin were recorded. No human bones survived. Viewed in conjunction with the 19th-century discoveries, it suggests that the stone circle provided the focus for a large and unusual cemetery.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended)
Funder: Reading University, with help in kind from the McRobert Trust
Richard Bradley and Amanda Clarke , Reading University 2012