greywether

Surrounded by trees and overgrown with bracken, this unprepossessing site is rather puzzling.

It is listed as a recumbent stone circle and there is certainly a large (3.4m long) recumbent stone in the right location. There is no evidence of the flankers and the recumbent, which currently lies in a position with a flat level surface uppermost, doesn’t look like your typical RSC recumbent.

There are some circle stones although they were difficult to find in the bracken. The centre is filled with a massive cairn which towers above the recumbent.

Visited 21 October 2005

This recumbent stone circle is well away from the rest of the pack but is certainly worth a visit.

The E flanker is still standing but its neighbour and the recumbent have fallen. Like many of the southern RSCs, the recumbent and flankers are joined to the ring cairn rather than the stone circle which sits on a wider radius. Two stones from the circle are still standing.

This site can be added to the list of stone circles which can be visited by the less abled. The access from the parking area is clear and, on this visit, the grass round the circle had been cut to allow closer access. Nice.

Visited 17 October 2005

You can avoid the worst of this site by not entering the gorse-covered enclosure right away and following the field wall clockwise (assuming you have approached from the S) until it straightens out close to where the remains of the circle are visible.

It doesn’t make the circle any more interesting though.

Visited 18 October 2005

This is not the most impressive of recumbent stone circles. The recumbent has gone, both flankers are down and the views aren’t great. But it does, like Balquhain, have an outlier so that makes it unusual and interesting.

The 2.3m outlier lies to the N of the site in an area where the line of the circle is difficult to establish because of the absence of stones but the grading rules of RSCs mean that this cannot be a circle stone.

The prior existence of the recumbent was confirmed to Coles when he surveyed the site in the early 20th century. The tenant farmer claimed it had been removed by a neighbouring farmer.

It was wet when I visited this site. I’d had several attempts at finding the right tractor tracks to lead me to the site (they’re opposite the caravan). My boots were thick with mud. Mrs G had given up. Maybe these explain why I’m I bit downbeat about this site. Try it on a good day!

Visited 20 October 2005

Agree entirely with Merrick’s assessment that this is a sight you should not miss.

On paper, it sounds tame. A recumbent and one circle stone were not enough stones to include it in the list of target sites for my March trip... but this punches well above its weight.

The view has been well covered in Merrick’s post. The massive recumbent (second only to the lofty Tyrebagger in height) dominates the site. It’s amazing it’s still standing because, like most recumbents, it simply sits on the ground surface. Cattle rubbing and trampling have failed to shift its estimated 12 tons. There are suggestions of cupmarks on its outer surface.

Ask at Loanend farm. They suggested driving up to near the site where there is a verge to park on.

Visited 20 October 2005

Inschfield Farm seemed to be the correct place to ask permission on this visit. Two routes were offered: our chosen one through the farm then up to the right (which had just been harvested) or park at a layby a little NW of the farm entrance then up through two fields.

Visited 18 October 2005

The field boundary and fence mentioned in previous posts have now gone – making it more difficult, presumably, to get access when the field is in crop.

Visited 18 October 2005

Petite, panoramic... and pink.

That just about sums up this recumbent stone circle. It has a wonderful setting in a plantation which now has very few trees.

Not all the stones are pink but the most prominent ones are – including the recumbent and flankers and two stones on the E still upright.

The fallen recumbent measures only 1.6 x 0.7m and the still upright E flanker stands to the dizzy height of 0.7m.

There are views over Bennachie and Mither Tap to the N.

Access from the path at NJ 589144 (where you can park) then via the southern plantation fence line.

Visited 20 October 2005

There was no sign of the “discarded cack” on this visit – just the “beautifully tranquil place”

Visited 18 October 2005

The ruined farmhouse is now a rather grand residence not connected with the farm. Happily, the landowner was working in the next field and was able to put us right before we went badly wrong.

The only access to the field which leads to the circle is now via the gate on the public road (where parking is also possible).

Visited 18 October 2005

A Clava ring cairn which was, at one time, hollowed out to make a pond, now dry.

Very overgrown in summer and even a lengthy performance of the trampling-down dance could reveal only a short stretch of kerb on the SW. Three circle stones could be seen – there are supposed to be more. One of the two cup-marked stones was found.

Amongst trees on the road W of Kiltarlity.

8.6.05

Nice kerb cairn with large closely set stones looking better than it did when I last saw it 10 years ago. Then it was only about one quarter visible due to untamed vegetation. Now, thanks probably to further building development in the area, it sits in clear open ground.

The site is not in its original location but was moved when the Kessock Bridge approach road was built.

It was once thought to be a Clava ring cairn, largely on account of the grading of stones towards the SW. However excavation prior to its relocation revealed no inner kerb.

Behind the Community Centre, Ashton Road in the Raigmore Estate, Inverness.

7.6.05

This Clava passage grave has a well-preserved kerb on the S and W sides but not a great deal surviving elsewhere. The passage entrance is marked by two kerbstones set radially to the others. Two broken circle stones remain.

The site is in the croft of Balnagrantach, off the A833. There is room to park off the road just before the gate to the croft. Two gates to the site, neither locked.

8.6.05

Not too much here worth bothering about. Most of the stones are field clearance and only historical evidence can classify it as a Clava cairn.

Visible from the A96.

7.6.05

A Clava passage grave with a fair bit of outer kerb still visible but not much evidence of the passage and chamber. One surviving but broken circle stone.

Through an unlocked gate and up a slight hill.

7.6.05

Not much survives of this Clava ring cairn. Two circle stones (the taller 2.5m) and some bits of inner and outer kerb.

Access in this case was just a straight line from the nearest road. Through some marshy ground, up a hill and over two fences. Unsubtle but quick.

7.6.05

This one eluded me a bit at first but then I discoverd it in a back garden. In fact it IS the back garden, all of it. No one around to ask so the picture is the “best” of a few taken over the wall.

Clava passage grave with the unusual feature of a chamber no wider than the passage and really just a continuation of it.

7.6.05

This Clava ring cairn is worth a visit for two reasons.

It is the largest of the Clava group (27m diameter) and, better still, one of the surviving upright circle stones is an incredible 3.4m high x 3.0 wide.

Large stretches of the outer kerb are still visible but almost nothing of the inner kerb. Cupmarks on a fallen stone to the N.

Access over a low fence from the roadside where parking is possible.

7.6.05