Sandend

Coles (1906) was misled in identifying this cairn and a neighbouring barrow (NJ56NE 4) as stone circles by a poor and ambiguous summary made by his authority – W. S. Cramond, the writer of the piece in the Transactions of the Banffshire Field Club (1884). Cramond had described the cairn as ‘a circle of stones 14 feet high and 60 feet broad’ - predictably glossed by Coles as 60 feet in diameter. However, the original source of this information was the Reverend James Lawtie’s report on the parish of Fordyce in the Statistical Account (1792), where he makes no mention of ‘a circle of stones’. Lawtie had written that there were ‘some Druidical temples, likewise burrows or tumuli’ in the parish and his ensuing description clearly refers to these ‘burrows or tumuli: ‘Three of the last have been opened within these few years. One very large between Glassaugh and the sea, immediately above the bay of Sandend. It consisted of a large circular accumulation of stones, fourteen feet high, and sixty feet broad, and then covered with earth or turf. Upon breaking in at the top, there were found a stone coffin of flag or flat stones; and in it the bones of a chieftain lying in their natural order; and a deer’s horn, a symbol of the chief’s being a hunter. . . . This burrow is now the site of the wind-mill [NJ56NE 3]. There had been another comparatively very small burrow, at about a hundred paces distance from the largest. It had been constructed by casting up a trench round it, which still remains; but the earth of the tumulus has been long ago carried off [NJ56NE 4].’

Following Coles’ misinterpretation of the passage, Burl (1976; 2000) distinguished the cairn and the barrow, as ‘Sandend Bay A’ (NJ56NE 3.01) and ‘Sandend Bay B’ (NJ56NE 4) respectively; and then cautiously included them in his County Gazetteer of Stone Circles. However, Barnatt (apparently without reference to Lawtie) correctly surmised the character of both monuments (Barnatt 1989).

Information from HES, Survey and Recording (ATW) 28 January 2019