Logie Newton
Kerb Cairn(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Logie Newton
Classification Kerb Cairn(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 18228
Site Number NJ63NE 5
NGR NJ 6594 3910
NGR Description NJ 6594 3910, NJ 6592 3910 and NJ 6590 3909
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18228
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Auchterless
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Banff And Buchan
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ63NE 5 659 391.
(NJ 6594 3910) Stone Circles (NR)
(NJ 6592 3910)
(NJ 6590 3909)
OS 6" map, (1959)
Three small stone circles mostly composed of white quartz with a few whinstones ('W' on plans). In each case the stones are set upon a fairly well-defined ridge.
'A': A crowded arrangement of smallish stones, the highest being barely 4'. The positions and shapes of the whin-stones suggest that they may have been covering stones for interments. Diameter 18' 6".
'B': A more open arrangement with a massive quartz boulder in the centre. Diameter 22' 9".
'C': Few large stones remain round the verge. The ridge is lost in the general swelling of the cairn-like low mound which constitutes the centre and which appears to be little disturbed. An irregular cavity near the SE arc may be the site of the large stone removed from one of these circles to mark the find-spot of an urn (NJ63NE 6). Diameter c.21'.
F R Coles 1903.
A group of three cairns, two of which (A and B) have been robbed leaving only mutilated kerbs. None of these cairns appears to be set on a ridge as stated by Coles (1903).
'A': Measures 5m in diameter. About eight of the kerb-stones are in situ and others lie displaced around the perimeter and interior. The N arc has been destroyed.
'B': Measures about 7.5m in diameter. Only two kerb-stones (on the SW) are in situ whilst others lie displaced around the perimeter and centre. The N arc has been destroyed.
'C': Visited as a turf-covered mound about 7.5m in diameter and about 0.6m high. Only two kerbstones in the SW and two in the NE are in situ; others lie displaced around the NE edge.
Despite Coles' assertion (in describing 'C'), the stone at NJ63NE 6 does not appear to have come from these cairns.
Resurveyed at 1:2500
Visited by OS (ISS) 16 January 1973.
(Location cited as NJ 6594 3910: Site of Regional Significance). This kerb cairn is situated on a shoulder at an altitude of 210m OD. The massive and spectacular kerbstones of white quartz stand proud of a very low interior platform. Two flat slabs (not of quartz) lie in the centre of the cairn. The N arc has been destroyed. A few of the kerbstones are in situ; the others lie displaced.
[Air photographic imagery listed].
NMRS, MS/712/35, visited 18 June 1986.
Publication Account (1986)
The three small, unearthly, rings of quartzite blocks that glisten in the sleet and sparkle in the sun high on the south facing shoulder of Kirk Hill represent two trends in the burial and ritual monuments of Grampian that run back over 1500 years. The first, seen here in the diameters of the rings of between 6m and 7m, is the gradual reduction in the size of the feature (compare the great single ring cairn at Loanhead, no. 98). The second is the use of quartzite, a notable characteristic of the earlier recumbent stone circles and Clava cairns, at Logie Newton translated into hefty blocks up to 1.3m in length. Kerb cairns are often found in groups, as here, and their kerbstones are frequently disproportionately large when compared with the flat interiors of the cairns. There are few, however, so striking or so dramatically unreal as this Buchan group.
The location of the Roman marching camp of Ythan Wells on the hill to the south (NJ 655382) can be appreciated from the kerb cairns.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Grampian’, (1986).
Publication Account (1996)
The three small, unearthly, rings of quartzite blocks that glisten in the sleet and sparkle in the sun high on the south facing shoulder of Kirk Hill represent two trends in the burial and ritual monuments of the North-east that run back over 1500 years. The first, seen here in the diameters of the rings of between 6 and 7m, is the gradual reduction in the size of the feature (compare the great single ring cairn at Loanhead, no. 98). The second is the use of quartzite, a notable characteristic of the earlier recumbent srone circles and Clava cairns, at Logie Newron translated into hefty blocks up to 1.3m in length. Kerb cairns are often found in groups, as here, and their kerbsrones are frequently disproportionately large when compared with the flat interiors of the cairns. There are few, however, so striking or so dramatically unreal as this Buchan group.
The location of the Roman marching camp of Ythan Wells on the hill to the south (N] 655382) can be appreciated from the kerb cairns.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).
