Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Creich Manse

Carved Stone(S) (Period Unassigned), Garden Feature (19th Century), Ring Cairn (Bronze Age), Stone Circle(S) (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Site Name Creich Manse

Classification Carved Stone(S) (Period Unassigned), Garden Feature (19th Century), Ring Cairn (Bronze Age), Stone Circle(S) (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Canmore ID 31819

Site Number NO32SW 26

NGR NO 31920 21029

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/31819

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Creich (North East Fife)
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District North East Fife
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NO32SW 26 31920 21029

(NO 3192 2102) Stone Circles (Placed here in 1817) (NAT)

OS 6" map (1959).

Not to be confused with NO32SW 23.

Two concentric stone circles were found, when ploughing in 1817, 500- 600 yards due E of the two concentric stone circles found in 1816 (NO32SW 23). It was situated on a lateral flat on the S side of the same ridge of hills, and also equidistant between the summit and the stream below.

A Lawson 1817; A Lawson 1870.

In the centre of this feature was an upright cylindrical sandstone (C) 14" high by 12" diameter, around which at a distance of 3' was a circle of 16 upright stones, (B) and beyond that a circle 15' in diameter consisting of 32 upright stones (A) the number of points in a compass, and in both circles, a stone larger than the rest was placed at each

end of the cardinal points. The stones forming the inner circle were of sandstone which could not be obtained nearer than Cupar Moor, seven miles away; the stones of the outer circle were of local whinstone.

Due S of the centre, and between it and circle B were two sculptured stones as illustrated (figs 2 and 3) the remaining space being paved. These circles were removed from their original position and set up, exactly as found, near the manse. When being removed, burned human bones and charcoal were found under the inner of the two sculptured stones. Two rather uncommon querns were found a few yards S of the circles and were presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), (One is illustrated fig 4, RCAHMS 1933).

(The RCAHMS confuses the circles found in 1816 (NO32SW 23) with these circles).

RCAHMS 1933, visited 1925.

The circles are still in situ at NO 3192 2102. Their original location could not be ascertained. Within the circle is a carved stone found in 1816 at the site of another circle (see NO32SW 23).

Visited by OS (JLD) 31 October 1956 and (RD) 10 June 1970.

Activities

Field Visit (27 April 1925)

The two concentric rings of stones that now stand in a small plantation on the crest of rising ground immediately to the north of the Parish Church Manse are not in their original position. They were exposed in the year 1816 during trenching operations on lower ground a little to the south-west of the Manse, and were removed for better preservation to the present site, where they were set up ‘precisely in their original form’. The following description from the New Statistical Account, ix, pp. 641-2, is by the parish minister of the time, who was the only one to make a careful examination of the settings as found: ‘In the centre was placed, in an upright position, a cylindrical sandstone, one foot two inches high, and having the diameter of its base one foot. Around this stone, as a centre, at the distance of three feet, were sixteen other stones, placed also in an upright position, and in the form of a circle. The stones of which it was composed were of various sizes, from fifteen to twenty inches in height; from eight to eighteen in breadth, and from four to nine in thickness. Due south of the centre, and between it and the inner circle, there were placed in a horizontal position, two stones containing hieroglyphics in alto relieve, very entire. The remaining space between the centre and the circle was laid with pavement. At the distance of seven feet and a half from the same central pillar, there was another circle of stones, thirty-two in number, placed in an upright position, and very much resembling those of the inner circle. The stones in both circles were placed close together. Between the circles there was neither pavement nor stone of any description. Neither were perfect circles, the diameter of one, from north to south, being fifteen feet one inch, while its diameter from east to west was only fourteen feet nine inches; in the same manner, the diameter of the other, from east to west, was five feet ten inches, while from north to south it was six feet one inch’. Beneath the larger of the two carved stones were found ‘burned human bones and charcoal’. It is remarkable that all the stones in the circle were of sandstone, which is not found nearer than Cupar, seven miles away, while those of the outer circle were of local whinstone.

The monument is unique in Scottish archaeology, but it is said that a somewhat similar group of stones, discovered in the same neighbourhood a little to the west, was destroyed before its significance was realised. A drawing of the former monument and of the carved stones appears in The Scots Magazine, 1817, 425. On the original stones the carvings are now too much defaced to be identified. Cf. further Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vii, Pt ii (1866-8), pp402-4, and Small’s Interesting Roman Antiquities in Fife, p232.

Visited by RCAHMS 27 April 1925

Field Visit (16 February 2018)

This ornamental garden feature is situated on the summit of a knoll 55m NNW of Creich Manse, where it is sunk into the ground surface. It is circular on plan and measures 4.6m in diameter within a closely-set outer ring of upright grey whinstone boulders up to 0.4m broad and 0.38m high. This encloses a concentric inner ring of upright yellow sandstone boulders measuring 1.8m in diameter, up to 0.23m broad and 0.38m high; and within this is a tightly packed area of paving containing two carved slabs on the S and a roughly cylindrical upright yellow sandstone boulder in the centre measuring 0.3m in diameter and 0.3m high. The larger slab exhibits a series of symbols in relief, which include a pair of shoes (or footprints) and a quaich, while the smaller slab displays a fragment of what may be an incised sword in a scabbard associated with six small rings sculpted in low relief.

The history of this garden feature and its discovery is well-known, having been the subject of three papers by the Rev. Alexander Lawson (1817, 1845 and 1870), a lengthy passage in the Rev. Andrew Small’s study of the Roman remains in Fife (1823) and an entry in the RCAHMS County Inventory (1933). However, all these commentators were baffled as to its origins, partly because they possessed too little comparative material and partly because they failed to resolve the errors and inconsistencies in the evidence that Lawson presented with evident good faith. Once it is understood that this feature represents a conflation of three separate elements, each belonging to a different chronological period, the difficulties are reduced. The earliest elements are the two concentric rings of upright stones which represent the inner and outer kerb of a ring-cairn comparable to Aii at Balfarg (NO20SE 20) – albeit slightly smaller in size. By contrast, the two carved slabs appear to be fragmentary post-medieval gravestones, while the central stone with its carefully dressed pockmarked summit and its smooth circumference is possibly of a later date.

How these elements came together is unknown, but despite Lawson’s belief to the contrary, it seems unlikely that the feature can really have been recovered in quite the way described in his papers. However, the summits of several of the stones in the outer and inner ring have been struck by the plough, thus confirming that aspect of his account. While it is just conceivable that this monument's constituent parts could have been brought together to form a decorative element in an earlier ornamental landscape, there is no historical warranty for such a possibility. It seems much more likely that It was confected by the workmen (with perhaps the connivance of George Tod, the landowner) to make up for Lawson’s disappointment at the destruction of the neighbouring ring-cairn (NO32SW 23) discovered in the spring of the previous year.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AMcC), 16 February 2018.

Measured Survey (16 February 2018)

HES surveyed Creich Manse ring-cairn with plane-table and alidade on 16 February 2018 at a scale of 1:50. The resultant plan was redrawn in vector graphics software.

Note (6 July 2018)

The two beehive quern upperstones were presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland by the Reverend Alexander Lawson in 1868 and remain in their safekeeping (X.BB 66, X.BB 67)

Information from NMS (Hugo Anderson-Whymark) 6 July 2018

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions