Arran, Blackwaterfoot

NR82NE 2 8911 2875

(NR 8910 2876) Cromlech (NR)

OS 6" map, Buteshire, 2nd ed., (1924)

A very large irregular capstone, 8ft 6ins x 7ft x 12ins at one side, 6ins at the other, rests somewhat displaced on the lateral stones of cist, some 3ft square, the W and N sides of which are displaced. It was excavated before 1840 when a flower-pot shaped (McArthur 1873) urn containing ashes was found. The urn was broken on removal, and the fragments kept by the excavators (NSA 1845). It was re-opened by Bryce, (1902) but apart from some pieces of wood charcoal and patches of brick-red earth round the cist, nothing was found.

7ft W of the cist is a standing stone 2ft high by 2ft 11ins by 1ft 5ins at base. Lying prone close to this is another, pointed, stone, 6ft 8ins long by 4ft broad at base, while to the N, 3 similar stones, though not quite so long, lie on one another. Bryce considers these stones to be the survivors of a circle of standing stones mentioned in the NSA (1845).

NSA 1845; J McArthur 1873; T H Bryce 1902.

NR 8911 2875 The remains of a cairn generally as described above. The stones are situated on a raised grassy platform, the edge of which is defined by the limit of ploughing. Although small stones fill the cist, beneath the capstone there is no evidence of any cairn material.

It seems very unlikely, from ground evidence, that these stones are the remains of a stone circle.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (BS) 10 October 1977.