Middleton

NJ72SW 15 7443 2217

Henge [NR] (remains of) [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1996.

(NJ 7442 2216) Crop-mark. Possible henge visible on CUCAP air photograph J K St Joseph CQ 0025 nd [CUCAP GQ 25, flown 14 July 1951].

(Undated) information from NMRS Record Card.

NJ 7443 2217. There are the traces of the ploughed down mound of this probable Class II henge which measures 22m in diameter internally. One entrance can be seen clearly in the SE and there may be another one in the NW, but the north crescent is barely visible. There are no traces of a bank.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 11 March 1964.

NJ 7443 2217. Middleton, Inverurie.

General: Sub-circular enclosure known from cropmarks on air photographs (CUCAP GQ 28 and RCAHMS AB/6311/CN) and slight earthworks, situated at c. 121m OD on the floor of a gently-sloping valley. To the S, the view is along the valley with a low horizon; to the N there is a gentle hill.

Features: Regular ditch interrupted by one causeway. No trace of a bank. An internal narrow ditch follows the main ditch and bulges out opposite the entrance causeway. GRC archaeological site index notes the presence of traces of a ploughed-down mound.

Dimensions: internal diameter c. 22m; external diameter range c. 27-30m; ditch width c. 3-4m; entrance width c. 4m.

Orientation: SE.

Comment: insufficient information, but cannot be ruled out as henge-related.

A F Harding and G E Lee 1987.

Classified as possible henge by Aberdeenshire Archaeological Service: air photographic imagery listed.

NMRS, MS/712/19.

This enclosure is situated on low-lying flat ground in the bottom of a natural basin at the head of a minor tributary of the River Don 520m ESE of Middleton steading (NJ72SW 71). Now reduced by cultivation to little more than vague undulations in the surface of the field, it apparently measures about 23m in diameter across a shallow penannular hollow 8m broad and only 0.1m deep, and there is a barely discernible external bank.

Cropmarks on air photographs (J Dewar 1976; AAS 1992) reveal the presence of two ditches, the outer measuring up to 8m and the inner some 2m in breadth, but it is difficult to reconcile either of them with the broad penannular hollow that is visible on the ground. The outer ditch, which is broken by a well-defined causeway on the SE, encloses an area measuring about 34m from NW to SE by 27m transversely, while the inner is about 17m in internal diameter. Thus, the outer edge of the visible penannular hollow probably correlates with the outer lip of the inner ditch, and the external bank, lies immediately within the outer ditch. The line of the inner ditch on the SE is broken by a curious out-turned feature, which is slightly offset to the W of the axis of the entrance through the outer ditch.

Walker and Beattie's estate plan of 1838 shows the area in which the enclosure lies as rough ground, but the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire, 1869, sheet liv) indicates that it had been incorporated into a cultivated field by that date. There is a 1.8m deep drain 40m E of the enclosure, and the area, which has a clay subsoil, would have been extremely wet before modern drainage.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, SPH), 12 June 1996.