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Bellman's Wood
Recumbent Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Bellman's Wood
Classification Recumbent Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 18427
Site Number NJ65SW 4
NGR NJ 6046 5041
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18427
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Marnoch
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Banff And Buchan
- Former County Banffshire
NJ65SW 4 6046 5041
(NJ 6046 5041) Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6" map, Banffshire, 2nd ed., (1905)
Bellman's Wood. The E Pillar of this stone circle remains on its original site but it is inclined to the SSE. The W Pillar is prostrate and there is a space for a Recumbent Stone of nearly 10ft in length. There are 5 other blocks of stone but none is large enough to have been one of the Standing Stones of the circle. As a dike runs within 20ft of the circle it is probable that most of the circle stones have been used in building it. Though the rest of the stones must have been to the N
of the present remains, there are no surface indications of their positions, so removal at a distant date may be presumed.
F R Coles 1906.
The remains of this stone circle consist of two large stones described by Coles (1906) as the E and the W pillars. The E pillar is c.1.6m high and almost square, measuring 0.8m x 0.7m. The prostrate W pillar is
2.3m long by 1.6m broad and 0.8 high. Many smaller stones lie around these two stones but are almost certainly field stones. No likely stones were seen in the stone dyke to the South of the circle, most of it being hidden by an earthen bank.
Re-Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 15 September 1964.
The 'E pillar' has now fallen. Another smaller earthfast stone 4.0m NW of the 'W pillar' may not be in situ. The 'W pillar' has certainly been displaced, and there is now no evidence that it and the 'E pillar' have been flankers to a recumbent stone.
Visited by OS (NKB) 24 August 1967.
Field Visit (19 May 2005)
Two slabs lying on a scarp forming the S side of a low natural swelling in the surface of the field due E of Bellman’s Wood probably belong to a recumbent stone circle. No trace of the recumbent survives, but their positions on the S side of the swelling, coupled with their shapes, suggest that they are probably the two flankers. The setting would have stood on the crest of the scarp facing SSE, from where the E flanker (3) has simply toppled forwards, while the western (1) has slipped down to the foot of the slope. They measure 2.3m and 2.4m in length respectively, and the eastern is markedly more slender than its pair. At the top of the scarp immediately behind and a little NW of what was probably the original position of the W flanker, there is also an earthfast stone with the character of a kerbstone; if so, this is the sole evidence that there was ever a ring-bank or an internal cairn here.
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW and KHJM) 19 May 2005
Measured Survey (19 May 2005)
RCAHMS surveyed the remains of Bellman’s Wood recumbent stone circle on 19 May 2005 with plane table and alidade producing a plan and section at a scale of 1:100. The survey drawing was redrawn in ink and used as the basis for an illustration produced in vector graphics software for publication at a scale of 1:250 (Welfare 2011, 307).
