Corrydown
Recumbent Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Corrydown
Classification Recumbent Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 19197
Site Number NJ74SW 11
NGR NJ 7068 4446
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/19197
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Auchterless
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Banff And Buchan
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ74SW 11 7068 4446.
(NJ 7068 4446) Stone Circle (NR)
OS 6" map, (1959)
The remains of a recumbent stone circle estimated by Coles (1903) (with assistance from the tenant) to have been originally about 75' in diameter. At the time of his visit all the stones had been moved or interfered with, and were all prostrate. The tenant had noticed considerable pebble beddings on the site, but had found no trace of any burials.
The recumbent stone had apparently been erected on a fairly well-defined ridge, portions of which were still visible, but it could not be determined if the ridge continued throughout the circumference.
F R Coles 1903.
The remains are generally as planned by Coles with the recumbent stone still "in situ" and several displaced stones around the perimeter. The circle has a diameter of c.19.0m and is sited in a patch of rough grass.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (AA) 17 January 1973.
A recumbent stone circle with both early and late features.
H A W Burl 1973.
Field Visit (28 October 1998)
This recumbent stone circle is situated on the E side of an arable field, just below the summit of a broad flat-topped spur overlooking the Burn of Howemill. The circle now comprises at least six stones, but only the recumbent is still in its place. The rest are not only fallen, but most are also displaced, lying close to the corners and edges of a trapezoidal patch of rough ground that is left unploughed. The diameter of the circle can no longer be determined with any certainty, though in 1902, with the help of the tenant who had moved some of the stones, Coles estimated that it had been about 23m. The alignment of the recumbent indicates that it stood on the SSW of the ring. The block measures about 2.55m in length by 1.45m in height, and its jagged summit indicates that it has been blasted; a boulder immediately in front of its W end may be a fragment of it. The W flanker (1) measures 2.35m in length and has fallen backwards to lie across its own socket; the E flanker, which in 1902 was lying prostrate a short distance from the recumbent, has been removed. Of the other fallen stones, orthostats 4 and 5, the broken fragments of 6, and probably 8, are still in the same positions that Coles found them, but 7 has evidently been moved. The uneven interior has been cultivated and what is probably the edge of an internal cairn is visible on the E, forming a low scarp adjacent to the fence. The field around the circle is littered with pebbles and fragments of quartz.
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG and IGP) 27 October 1998
Measured Survey (28 October 2003)
RCAHMS surveyed the remains of Corrydown recumbent stone circle on 28 October 2003 with plane table and alidade producing a plan and section of the site and an elevation of the recumbent stone at a scale of 1:100. The plan, section and elevation were redrawn in ink and used as the basis for an illustration produced in vector graphics software and published at a scale of 1:250 (Welfare 2011, 344).
Field Visit (6 October 2016)
An earthfast boulder situated immediately E of the NE tip of the fallen W flanker has been interpreted as a kerbstone - presumably one where the kerb has been turned sharply outwards to meet the back of the setting (Burgess 2015). While this can be tested by excavation in future, such a configuration would be unusual, as most cairns with a pronounced extension linked to the recumbent setting by kerbstones in this way, connect with the flankers and not the recumbent stone. The rock-type is a quartz rich Breccia conglomerate, similar to the surviving flanker.
Burgess, A 2015: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4423399
Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AMcC), 6 October 2016
