Upper Balfour

NO79NE 28 Centred NO 7816 9586

From NO77916 95777 to NO 78484 95956.

Situated in an area of rough pasture on a low ridge 540m SW of Upper Balfour farmhouse, there is a field-system and cairnfield containing at least three burial cairns (NO79NE 31, 32, 33, a ring-cairn (NO79NE 30), a hut circle and a rectilinear enclosure.

The hut-circle (NO 7795 9580) measures 9.5m in diameter within a stony bank which around the S half is up to 0.4m high and spread to a thickness of 1.5m but elsewhere is reduced to little more than a scatter of stones; the entrance may have been on the E.

The rectilinear enclosure (NO 7814 9581) measures 33.2m in length over all and tapers from 8.3m in breadth at the WSW end to 7.3m about 11.5m from the ENE end; at this point it contracts to 6m in breadth for the rest of its length. The sides are defined by low banks, along which boulders are set, and the ENE end, which is well-preserved, is rounded. The ruinous state of the enclosure suggests that it is of considerable antiquity and it may even be the remains of a building of prehistoric date.

On the crest of the ridge there are about 200 cairns spread over about 9ha, and a scatter of cairns along the SE edge of Kirkton Wood suggest that they once extended at least 150m further to the W; the cairns vary from 2m to 7m in diameter and are up to 0.7m in height. Amongst them are five major banks, which appear to have been part of a system of large enclosures on the crest of the ridge. The cairns noted on a moor at Upper Balfour in 1913 probably refer to this site.

RCAHMS 1984, visited March 1984.

Aberdeen J Notes and Queries 1913.

RCAHMS undertook a 1:2500 plan of the cairns, hut circle and field system at Upper Balfour in 1983. The field survey drawing was redrawn in ink.