Monandavan

A settlement of stone-walled houses, stock enclosures and droveways, this site was systematically recorded by Sir Alexander Ogston, sometime physician to Queen Victoria. The contiguous structures, A, Band E on Ogston's plan have been interpreted as houses. A is massively walled and sunken-floored, a sizeable 19m in diameter. B appears to consist of a hut circle enclosed by a stone wall 18m in diameter. E is 17m in diameter and similar to B in plan, but is slighter in construction (and may represent the remains of a timber house). The souterrain, C, appears to open off E (?with a connection to B as well).

The enclosures, Rand D, lie to the Nand S of the three huts. D is contiguous with A and 19.5m in diameter; it has a clearly defined entrance to the E. R is not attached to any house but one massive main wall of the surtounding field system runs north from its north-western corner. R is more irregular in plan, being 26m E-W by 24m N-S; its entrance faces south-west. The double walls, M, have been interpreted as a dtoveway. The other features, X, Y, etc are more vestigial.

The birch woods around contain many stone banks and walls of a sizeable system of large enclosures, as well as traces of cord-rig cultivation, related to this well organised, prestigious farmstead.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).

This ring-cairn lies in improved pasture on a broad terrace above and to the S of the Monandavan Burn. To the S and W where the ground rises, the area is colonised by silver birch and there is an extensive landscape of hut-circles, field-banks, hollow-ways and clearance cairns (Ogston 1931, Fig. 24). The cairn measures 14.5m in diameter by up to 0.4m in height and is probably flat-topped, the spreads of stones on the surface of the cairn being the result of later field-clearance. The inner court is visible as a shallow central hollow and measures 8.9m from ESE to WNW by 7.2m transversely, and is partly infilled with grass-grown stones. Twenty-five kerbstones are disposed around its perimeter, though there are large gaps on the NE and SW. The most continuous stretch of eleven stones is on the E arc, extending from the ENE round to the SE, where the kerb appears to be built in short straight segments. Some of the kerbstones are rounded boulders, others are much thinner slabs, and they generally increase in size towards the S. The growth of lichen and vegetation make it difficult to determine the colour of the stones, though both pink and grey granite are present. The halo of a plough scar encircles the cairn.

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 22 June 2005

RCAHMS surveyed Monandavan ring-cairn on 22 June 2005 with plane table and alidade producing a plan and section at a scale of 1:100. The survey drawing was later used as the basis for an illustration, produced in ink and finished in vector graphics software, that was published at a scale of 1:250.

This grass-grown ring-cairn stands on a broad natural terrace in improved pasture 175m W of the road leading from Dinnet to Milton of Logie (B9119). Polygonal on plan, it measures 15m from E to W by 14.5m transversely over a discontinuous kerb of water-worn boulders and edge-set slabs rising up to 0.5m in height. This kerb is best preserved on the NW and SE, and, although it is not graded in height, the smaller boulders and slabs tend to be situated on the N, while the larger are on the S. A shallow oval hollow, which measures 9m from WNW to ESE by 7.3m transversely and up to 0.4m in depth, may be a central court although no evidence of an inner kerb is visible. A heap of field cleared stones overlies the NE side of this hollow.

Visited by RCAHMS (AW, KHJM), 22 June 2005