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'The Wren's Egg'
Standing Stone(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name 'The Wren's Egg'
Classification Standing Stone(S) (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Blairbuy, Blairbuie
Canmore ID 62752
Site Number NX34SE 10
NGR NX 3610 4199
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/62752
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Glasserton
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Wigtown
- Former County Wigtownshire
NX34SE 10 3610 4199
(NX 3610 4199) Wren's Egg (NAT)
Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6" map (1957)
The visible remains of this site consist of a large erratic boulder ('The Wren's Egg') and, at some 17m and 19m to the E, a pair of standing stones. The Wren's Egg is situated on the top of an elongated knoll (main axis N-S) which has a gentle slope to S and E, but is steep-sided to the W. It has been suggested (RCAHMS 1912) that the pair of stones represented the remains of a large double concentric circle, with the Wren's Egg as the centre stone. To test this hypothesis an area 9m x 9m was excavated around the pair of standing stones, and a further area 13m x 6m was investigated to the S of the Wren's Egg. The area around the Wren's Egg was also investigated.
A large pit, found to the SE of The Wren's Egg, was almost certainly underlying it, though this area could not be fully investigated. A few animal bones were found in the pit filling, together with a shirt button, which suggests that the pit is modern. The W standing stone appeared to be in a slight hollow with packing tones around and under its curved base. The E stone was set in a well-defined hole and was packed with boulders and a small slab. No finds were made in the stone holes or in the area between the standing stones. In the other areas investigated, no evidence was found for the existence of any stone circle.
Possibly, if stones had been removed, subsequent deep ploughing could have removed all traces of stone holes or settings. However, if The Wren's Egg was the centre stone of a double concentric stone circle, it would have been impossible to see from the E side to the W and it is strange that only two stones should remain of what could have been a monument of about 140 stones. It would seem best, therefore, to regard the monument as simply an erratic boulder and a pair of standing stones. Finds, mostly from the plough soil, included a flint knife, scrapers, flakes, and unworked pebble flint. Under guardianship.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (IA) 30 December 1972; L J Masters 1975
Field Visit (6 July 1911)
Stone Circle (remains of), “Wren's Egg”, Blairbuy.
Some 300 yards NW. of the farm-house of Blairbuy, on a slight eminence, there stands a large granitic ice-borne boulder, around which there formerly stood a double concentric stone circle. Only two small pointed boulders remain in situ, opposite members of each circle, some 6' apart and E. by N. of the central boulder. The radius of the outer circle has been 66'. This monument is under the care of H.M. Office of Works.
O.S.M., WIGTOWN, xxx. S.E.
Visited 6th July 1911
Excavation (5 November 2012 - 11 November 2012)
Archaeological investigations were carried out by GUARD Archaeology Limited under a Human Remains Call off Contract (HRCC) on behalf of Historic Scotland at Blairbuy farm, Dumfries and Galloway. The farmer had encountered a stone slab on during ploughing on 29h March 2012; this was in fact the capstone of a stone cist burial. On further investigation (05th to 11th April) and after the removal of the plough-soil overburden under archaeological supervision, two additional stone cists were found in close proximity to the first. One cist contained skeletal remains and no artefacts; the other two cists did not contain skeletal remains or artefacts. All of the cists lay on a slight ridge leaving them at risk from further damage by agricultural practices. For this reason it was deemed necessary to record and remove the cists and any contents by archaeological excavation.
Information from Oasis (guardarc1-124373) 28 March 2013
Publication Account
This term of gentle irony is applied to a large granite boulder, a glacial erratic, which sits on the edge of a low ridge in a field north-west of Blairbuie Farmhouse. About 15m east and downhill from the boulder is a pair of smaller standing stones, 1.5m apart, whose relative positions gave rise to the belief that they were the surviving inner and outer elements of a double concentric stone circle centred on the 'Egg'. Survey and excavation have shown that a circle of any kind is unlikely to have existed here. The bases of the standing stones yielded meagre evidence oflate 3rd and 2nd millennium activity.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
