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Upper Third
Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Upper Third
Classification Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) Upperthird
Canmore ID 18226
Site Number NJ63NE 3
NGR NJ 6774 3938
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18226
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Auchterless
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Banff And Buchan
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ63NE 3 6774 3938.
(NJ 6774 3938) Standing Stones (NR)
OS 6" map, (1959)
Upperthird: The OS 6" map, (1959) marks one stone on the S circumference of a circle about 80' in diameter, but pays no heed to others. The present condition shows two large stones within 4' of each other, a discrepancy not to be accounted for. These huge bulky masses of extremely rugged whinstone stand E and W of each other, and the longer side of the tall stone trends NNW-SSE. Its vertical height is 6' 9", and basal girth, 17' 8 1/2". The lower stone is 4' 7" in height; its two longer sides measure respectively 7' and 6', and its ends 4'6" and nearly 4'. It is probable, therefore, judging by its shape, that this stone was once erect. Whether it constituted the E pillar with its neighbour as recumbent stone is conjectural.
F R Coles 1903.
Two stores as described by Coles (1903). It is possible that neither is in situ. Between them is a smaller loose boulder, apparently recently placed.
Resurveyed at 1:1500.
Visited by OS (ISS) 16 January 1973.
Possible recumbent stone circle.
H A W Burl 1973.
Measured Survey (19 May 2005)
RCAHMS surveyed the remains of Upper Third stone circle on 19 May 2005 with plane table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:100. The plan was 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 (Welfare 2011, 546).
Publication Account (2011)
These two large boulders are situated in a field about 300m west-south-west of Upperthird. The west stone (A), which is clearly set upright, measures 1.6m from north-north-west to south-south-east by 1.2m transversely and 2.05m in height. Its neighbour (B), possibly lying on its side and now situated no more than 0.9m to the east, measures 2.1m in length by 1.4m in breadth and 1.25m in height. Apparently known as the Gray Stones in the 19th century, they were supposed to be the remains of a Druidical Circle, which the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map shows in a small patch of rough ground measuring 7m from north-west to south-east by 5m transversely (Aberdeenshire 1873, xxvii.12). All trace of this had disappeared by the time James Ritchie photographed the stones in 1905 (RCAHMS AB2519 & AB2928) and the area has remained under cultivation ever since. The description in the Name Book contains a note of skepticism and simply notes ‘Two large gray stones one of them standing about 4 feet above the surface of the ground and the other laying’ (Name Book, Aberdeenshire, No. 7, p 41). Coles, who visited them in 1902, was also struggling to resolve the configuration of the two stones against the backdrop of other recumbent stone circles he had seen. He was evidently puzzled, but thought that the eastern had probably once been upright, leading him to write: ‘Whether it constituted the east pillar with its neighbour as Recumbent Stone is conjectural’ (Coles 1903a, 102). Conjectural or not, Upper Third has figured as a possible recumbent stone circle in every list that has been prepared since (Burl 1976a, 353, Abn 109; 2000, 422, Abn 114; Barnatt 1989, 464, no. 6:155), though Ruggles has pointed out that there is no unequivocal evidence that this is a recumbent stone circle rather than some other form of megalithic setting (1984, 59, 58 note f; 1999, 186 no. 28, 266 note 4). The present survey concurs with this view and has little else to add, other than that by 1973 another rounded boulder had been dumped between the two stones.
