Holmhead

This recumbent stone circle is situated in a patch of rough ground about 60m SSE of the N corner of a field of improved pasture. It is well-hidden on a small SW-facing terrace between large heaps of gorse-grown field clearance, close to the leading edge of a SE-facing scarp. The circle measures 7.5m in diameter and retains a full complement of stones, comprising the recumbent setting on the SSW and seven orthostats. All are of a local metamorphic rock - migmatitic psammite with migmatitic semipelite belonging to the Craigivar Formation. However, the recumbent stone (2) has fallen on to its face, while the East Flanker (3) lies prone immediately NE of its stone hole. The recumbent measures 1.66m in length, 0.75m in height and 0.53m in thickness, but there is no depression or hollow where it once stood. Instead there is a bedding, including a great many small white quartz boulders, raised slightly above the general level of the ring’s interior. The tallest stones are the W flanker (1), which stands 1.11m high and the E flanker which measures 1.63m long. Its stone hole, measuring 0.7m in diameter and 0.2m deep, is partly lined with white quartz. The seven evenly spaced orthostats are roughly graded in height, with their tops descending from the flankers on the SSW to the lowest orthostat on the NE. However, the ENE orthostat (4) breaks the sequence dramatically. Moreover, three of the orthostats (4, 5 and 8) are set with their long axes at right angles to the circumference of the ring. Most of these stones lean one way or another and their surfaces are covered with a rich mantle of lichen. Although the grass-grown interior is stony and appears to have been disturbed, no kerbstones are visible to indicate the presence of a cairn.

In a footnote on the antiquities in the parish of Leochel, the Reverend George Forbes refers to ‘the remains of Druidical temples . . . composed of two and three circles of erect stones’ which survived in close proximity to large cairns (Stat Acct, vi, 1793, 221). However, almost fifty years later, the Reverend Alexander Taylor reported that most of the cairns had gone ‘in the progress of cultivation and building’, leaving unresolved the fate of the neighbouring ‘Druidical temples’ (NSA xii, Aberdeenshire, 1121). The steading at Holmhead is shown on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1868, Sheet LXXI.6), but the stone circle 160m NW is not denoted. By contrast, the second edition illustrates the patch of rough ground on which it is situated, which was then a little larger than today, but there is no hint as to the presence of the stone circle (Aberdeenshire 1900, sheet LXXI.6). The Reverend George Williams, an antiquary who was born in Leochel Cushnie in 1845 and whose family occupied the steading in the late 19th century, donated ten Neolithic and Bronze Age arrowheads found on the property to the Smith Institute, Stirling (Smith Institute 1934; NJ50NW 8); but despite his evident interest and appreciation of prehistory, he did not refer to the presence of a stone circle on the holding in a wide ranging article on the topography of the area published some five years before the second edition of the OS map. Instead, he writes only of ‘a quarry of decomposed gneiss, which is often used for sand,’ which was located in one of the fields. Neither of the OS maps show this pit, but an aerial photograph (CPE/Scot/UK/259/ 3345-3346) taken on 9 August 1947 reveals such an excavation on the SE-facing scarp less than 20m from the stone circle. This has now been infilled with stones and boulders and is thickly overgrown with gorse, but its presence can be clearly detected in the long NW to SE profile (Z-Z1) drawn over the patch of rough ground. A later aerial photograph (OS 68-182 057) taken on 12 June 1968 indicates distinctly and without qualification that the stone circle was absent and had yet to be built. The policies of Holmhead were included in the ‘Craigievar Survey’ undertaken by RCAHMS in 1994 and although the footings of a group of old buildings (NJ50NW 28) were noted by Jack Stevenson less than 100m NW of the stone circle, the fact that the ring was not observed on that occasion provides a terminus post quem for its construction.

In practice, this replica of a recumbent stone circle was built about 1998 by the owner of Holmhead for his own amusement. At the time, the semi-derelict property was being renovated and in moments of leisure he was accustomed to sit on the recumbent stone and enjoy the fine outlook SSW. When the house was sold by a later owner in 2015, an image of the ring without a caption was included in the Estate Agent’s particulars (Galbraith, Aberdeen) - the first time it had been bought to public attention. In October 2018, it was reported to the Aberdeen Council Archaeology Service by Fiona Bain, an occupant of a neighbouring farm.

Other modern replicas of recumbent stone circles include examples at Archaeolink Prehistory Park, Oyne, [NJ62NE 188], The Breemie Stones, Skene (NJ71SE 143); Corsehill, Durris (NO89NW 70) and Mill of Birkenbower, Lumsden (NJ42SE 138) (Welfare 2011, 26).

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AMcC, KLG), 14 November 2018.

HES surveyed Holmhead recumbent stone circle with plane-table and alidade on 14 November 2018 at a scale of 1:100. GNSS data was also collected to record survey control and sections across the site. The resultant plan and sections were redrawn in vector graphics software.