Good photos and info. including an enhanced photo of the hand carving on the NW stone.
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March 3, 2002
March 1, 2002
Image and brief description of the site.
Images and description of the site.
Images and description of the site.
February 26, 2002
Images and description of the site.
Images and description of the site.
Images and description of the site.
Images and description of the site.
February 25, 2002
Images and description of the site.
Images and description of the group of sites.
Images and description of the site.
February 16, 2002
An entry from Ancient Stones, an online database that covers most of the standing stones, stone circles and other stones found in South East Scotland. Each entry includes details, directions, photograph, folklore, parking and field notes on each location.
February 13, 2002
Worth a look through the archive of past issues of the newsletter.
February 2, 2002
Colour pic and description here
January 27, 2002
Couple of pics here. Originally one of a pair of circles.
A good photo and guide.
One of the best known neolithic sites in S.Wales
3 good photos of Arthur’s Stone (Maen Ceti) on this page.
The site also has gazetteer of Ancient Monuments and sites in the UK with special attention being paid to S.Wales
good photos
January 23, 2002
ameilai Pannet, archaeologist sets out her paper on the Grey Cairns of Camster starting as follows – The Neolithic archaeology of Caithness is little known to most people outside northern Scotland, despite the wealth of evidence that litters the landscapes. This is no doubt a consequence of the relative lack of archaeological investigation in the area since the 19th Century when distinguished antiquarians such as Anderson and Rhind carried out ground-breaking excavations of many chambered cairns and Brochs. Here in lies the irony; the centre of antiquarian exploration is now considered by many as peripheral to studies of British Prehistory (Mercer 1992). That said, however, fieldwork carried out by Henshall, Corcoran and Masters, amongst others, has provided an invaluable corpus of data from which we can move forward and try to bring Caithness in line with the rest of British archaeology.......more
The stone rows at Tormsdale, Fig. 1, were first recorded as a result of an archaeological survey carried out by the Archaeology Branch of the Ordnance Survey in 1982 (Discovery Excav. Scot. 1982, 49). The site (NGR ND 148 497) lies on the 69m contour, approximately 3km SE of the bridge of Westerdale and 100m from the E bank of the River Thurso. To the NW is the broch of Tulach Beag, with the broch of Tulach Mor to the S. 2.8km to the SW are the stone rows of Dirlot (Thom 1971, 95) and 0. 9km to the SSE a burnt mound has been identified. The stone setting covers an area of approximately 60m x 60m and is on ground which rises only very gradually to the SE. The area is grass covered for the most part and has been colonised by soft rushes which make it difficult to identify the full extent of the rows of stones visually, since many of the stones protrude only a small distance above the surface and others appear as small hummocks on the surface where grass has grown over them........more
The only theory which has been published on the purpose of these stone alignments is that of Professor Thom (Thom 1971). Of necessity, the explanation is couched in mathematical terms although this does not mean that the builders of the rows had the same mathematical knowledge that we have today. It is quite possible for the rows to have been set up solely by observation and experiment without any knowledge of the underlying mathematics........more
Of the known settings of stone rows in the north of Scotland plans of accurate surveys have been published of only about a third of them. Most of these are the results of the work done by Professor Thom. It intended in this article, and the following one, to give a description of the sites with available plans including those of Thom together with the results of recent surveys carried out by the authors which have not been published recently.
From an analysis of the diameters of circular stone settings, obtained by accurate survey........more
At a number of sites throughout Caithness and Sutherland are to be found multiple rows of small standing stones. The stone usually protrude not more than 1m above the surface, and in some cases they are either barely visible or have become submerged by the growth of peat or other vegetation. They are arranged in rows, often fan-shaped in the form of a truncated cone, or, less commonly, the rows may be parallel. Such settings of stones are often inconspicuous, sometimes hidden by heather, and may be easily overlooked.................more
The archaeology section of the Caithness Community Web site has a growing list of articles and directions to sites in the county of Caithness. There are pages on groups that have an interest in archaeology and history in the area. Caithness Field club is supplying articles from its annual bulletins. Many photogrpahs of brochs and other sites are being added to the web site.
January 18, 2002
Good info and photos. I got much of the info. for my posting from here. Ancient Scotland names this site ‘Blanefield’, although I’ve always seen it referred to as ‘Dumgoyach’.
January 13, 2002
Two stone circles and two stone rows at this Dartmoor site. The small circle is probably a cairn circle.