Sir James Young Simpson, as long ago as 1861, said, “Almost all the primaeval stone circles and cromlechs which existed in the middle and southern districts of Scotland have been cast down and removed. . . . In the beginning of the eighteenth century Sir Robert Sibbald states that near the Kipps cromlech was a circle of stones with a large stone or two in the middle, and he adds, ‘many such may be seen all over the country.’ They have all disappeared, and but lately the stones of the Kipps circle have been themselves removed and broken up, to build, apparently, some neighbouring field walls, though there was abundance of stones in the vicinity equally well suited for the purpose.”
Anniversary address to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, January, 1861. (Proceedings, vol.iv.p.48.)
The Stone Circles of Scotland
A. L. Lewis
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 30. (1900), pp. 56-73.
(perhaps this is the source that Crombie (above)’s author was referring to? The last sentence is rather interesting, suggesting a definite anti stance against the stones, rather than just a disinterested one bent on wall building?)