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Marchwell

Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age), Food Vessel (Bronze Age)

Site Name Marchwell

Classification Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age), Food Vessel (Bronze Age)

Alternative Name(s) Rullion Green

Canmore ID 51863

Site Number NT26SW 12

NGR NT 22650 62120

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51863

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Midlothian
  • Parish Glencorse
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District Midlothian
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT26SW 12 2264 6212.

The remains of a circle, forty feet in diameter and composed of large stones, set close together, could be seen, in 1843, close by the road near Marchwell. They had lately been broken and removed for the construction of a wall which runs through the middle of the site.

In 1927 the Commission found only two stones in situ, both about 15 ins high. Five similar blocks lay nearby: all seven, of a basaltic stone, seemed to have been brought from a distance.

Stevenson, in 1940/41, donated two fragments of a food vessel from the site to the NMAS (acc. nos. EP 160-161) and agrees that, at present, the site should be classed as a stone circle.

NSA 1845 (A Torrence); RCAHMS 1929; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1941

Information from R B K Stevenson, NMAS.

NT 2264 6212 The remains of this stone circle, as described above, are two boulders, 0.5m high, embedded in the edge of a knoll. Wartime slit-trenches on the top show the knoll to be very stony but probably natural.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 3 February 1970

No change to previous field report.

Visited by OS (BS) 10 December 1975

Activities

Field Visit (8 October 1927)

Stone Circle, Remains of, near Marchwell.

On the right side of the main roadway from Edinburgh to Carlops, as it approaches the farm of Marchwell, are the remains of a very much destroyed stone circle. The monument occupies a site at an elevation of between 800 and 900 feet above sea-level, and it is probable that it was broken up by the making of the highway, which cuts the knoll on its east side. Two of the stones, showing a height of about 15 inches above ground, remain in their original positions, while five others lying in close proximity are probably units that have been moved. These five blocks, which are not earth-fast, are of similar character to the two remaining in situ, and all seven, judging from their basaltic character, appear to have been brought from a distance. In the New Statistical Account of the parish the circle is described as having been 40 feet in diameter.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 8 October 1927.

OS map: xiii N.W. (unnoted).

Note (1988)

Marchwell NT 2264 6212 NT26SW 12

Nothing is visible of the 'circle of large stones, placed near each other', which stood on a low knoll 250m NE of Marchwell. It measured about 12.2m in diameter but was demolished shortly before 1843. Two fragments of a Food Vessel (RMS, EP 160-1) found at the site in about 1940 probably came from the slit trench that is visible on the summit of the knoll.

RCAHMS 1988

(NSA, I, Edinburgh, 317; RCAHMS 1929, 76, no. 105; PSAS, lxxv, 1940-41, 220, no. 17; Cowe 1983, 88, no. 42)

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