Torhousekie
Stone Row (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Torhousekie
Classification Stone Row (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 62841
Site Number NX35NE 12
NGR NX 3837 5650
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/62841
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Wigtown
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Wigtown
- Former County Wigtownshire
NX35NE 12 3837 5650.
(NX 3837 5650) Standing Stones (NR)
OS 1:10000 map (1979)
Stone Circle (remains of) - Three boulders set on end on a slightly curving line which suggests that they are the remains of a circle A distance of 2' 6" separates the two outer stones from the central one. The highest stone is 4' in height , some 3' in breadth, and 2' in thickness; the second stone is of somewhat similar dimensions; and the third about one-half the size of the others.
RCAHMS 1912
As described by RCAHMS. It is not clear whether these stones are part of a stone circle.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 18 August 1970
NX 383 565 The central stone of this three stone alignment (NMRS no NX35NE 12), situated NE of the Torhousekie stone circle (NX35NE 14), fell during December 1994. The area of the socket was examined prior to re-erection in July 1995.
Excavation revealed that the stone had been sitting in a shallow circular pit, 0.70m in diameter and 0.14m deep, cut into the natural glacial clays. The pit sealed and in part truncated a steep-sided oval feature. No organic material was recovered from the fill of this feature but its form suggests a post hole. This might indicate a timber phase pre-dating the erection of the central stone.
Sponsor: Wigtown District Council.
J Pickin and A Penman 1995.
Publication Account (1986)
Set on a slightly raised platform in the gently undulating landscape of the Bladnoch valley, the stone circle at Torhousekie is one of the best preserved sites of its kind in Britain. It is unlike any of the other circles in the region, being more akin to some of the recumbent stone circles of north-east Scotland and south-west Ireland. It consists of nineteen granite boulders of somewhat dumpy proportions, graded in height towards the larger stones in the south-eastern sector, where the 21.6m diameter ring is noticeably 'flattened'. Near its centre there is a row of three stones aligned on a south-west/north-east axis, thus facing south-east; the smallish central stone is flanked by two massive boulders, and this central arrangement is backed by the remains of what has been interpreted as a D-shaped ring cairn. In 1684 Symson noted that these three stones were called 'King Galdus's tomb'.
A standing stone situated about 24m to the south faces towards the circle, and to the east on the opposite side of the road at NX 384565 there is an alignment of three stones, evidently not part of another circle as was once thought.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
