The Cloch

The Cloch NO 781 679 NO76NE 1

This cairn is situated on the summit of Cloch Hill 380m WNW of Boghead farmhouse. It measures 18m in diameter over the remains of a boulder kerb and has been reduced by robbing to a height of 0.5m. The cairn takes its name from a prominent conglomerate slab (2.3m by 1.7m by 0.6m) set on edge which forms one of the kerbstones on the SSE; it is flanked by two upright kerbstones, leading to the suggestion that the site is a Recumbent Stone Circle. The cairn is, however, one of a group in the area which have well-built kerbs and an associated large stone. (See also NO87NW 12, NO87NW 6, NO87NW 4 and NO87NW 5)

RCAHMS 1982, visited March 1982

(Kenworthy 1972, 24)

This recumbent stone circle is situated in improved pasture on the E shoulder of the broad summit of Cloch Hill. Now comprising a large slab (2) standing in the kerb on the SSE of a heavily-robbed robbed cairn about 17.5m in diameter and 0.5m high, there is no sign of a surrounding circle of orthostats. The slab, however, which measures 2.55m in length by 2m in height and has a roughly horizontal top, is of sufficient size that there can be little doubt that it should be considered alongside circles with recumbent settings. Although set up on the SSE of the cairn, its long axis lies NE and SW and the slab thus faces SE; the graffito ‘JP’ is cut into its summit. According to the OS surveyors in 1863, ‘a large boulder [stood] at each end of’ the slab (Name Book, Kincardineshire, No. 4, pp 33, 35–6), but it is unclear whether this refers to a memory of a pair of flankers once standing to either side or simply to the existing kerbstones. To judge from the kerbstones on the SE, of which only a stone 1m high remains upright, the kerb was graded to increase in size and height towards the recumbent and its flanking stones; like the Blue Cairn (No. 14), other orthostats may have stood on the line of the kerb.

This recumbent stone circle is situated in improved pasture on the E shoulder of the broad summit of Cloch Hill. Now comprising a large slab (2) standing in the kerb on the SSE of a heavily-robbed robbed cairn about 17.5m in diameter and 0.5m high, there is no sign of a surrounding circle of orthostats. The slab, however, which measures 2.55m in length by 2m in height and has a roughly horizontal top, is of sufficient size that there can be little doubt that it should be considered alongside circles with recumbent settings. Although set up on the SSE of the cairn, its long axis lies NE and SW and the slab thus faces SE; the graffito ‘JP’ is cut into its summit. According to the OS surveyors in 1863, ‘a large boulder [stood] at each end of’ the slab (Name Book, Kincardineshire, No. 4, pp 33, 35–6), but it is unclear whether this refers to a memory of a pair of flankers once standing to either side or simply to the existing kerbstones. To judge from the kerbstones on the SE, of which only a stone 1m high remains upright, the kerb was graded to increase in size and height towards the recumbent and its flanking stones; like the Blue Cairn (No. 14), other orthostats may have stood on the line of the kerb.

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG and IGP) 9 May 2005

RCAHMS surveyed the Cloch recumbent stone circle on 9 May 2005 with plane table and alidade producing a plan and section of the site and an elevation of stone 2 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, 331).