First site in a three-day trip to Arran and a return visit to the Giant's Graves after 16 years. I'm sure the climb wasn't so steep the last time!
Two Clyde chambered cairns. The worderfully megalithic N one being the better preserved with its facade and forecourt (facing N) still clear enough. The main chamber is a joy and there is also a ruined S chamber.
The second cairn faces W.
Visited 9 May 2005
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Two round cairns - one of them amongst the best preserved in Scotland.
The Nether Cairn is 15m diameter and 3.5m high and retains its pudding-bowl shape from all angles. Such a joy to see one not mutilated for building dykes or sheep shelters. No trace of a kerb.
700m to the NE is the Upper Cairn (NT11005091), a bit higher than Nether Cairn but it has suffered from stone robbing.
Access Off a Right of Way running NE from Garvald Farm. Rough track with several gates but all can be opened.
Visited 2 May 2005
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A three-stone row running NNE-SSW beside the A701 between Moffat and J15 of the M74.
The stones look smaller than the dimensions in Canmore; the tallest is more like 1m than the 1.7m quoted. Possibly the ground level has increased following road improvements.
Too cloudy to see if the stones were aligned on anything.
Visited 2 May 2005
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This is an interesting enough RSC. Nothing very remarkable about it but it's in better nick than many.
I usually take copies of Thom's plans to a site mainly as a handy starting point for my own scribbles. On this one he has the recumbent and flankers in the SE quadrant. They're not. Makes you wonder, eh?
Anyway, of more interest, he refers to an outlying menhir in the SE having been removed by the farmer and his drawing shows the recumbent and flankers lying inside the circumference of the circle. Not unusual when there is a ring cairn but no evidence of that here.
Access The easiest way into the site is via the farm to the N on the E of the A97. I asked there and, although the circle is not on their land, they were happy to let me cross and to park in their yard.
Visited 17 March 2005
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Nice site .... shame about the military jets flying low overhead every 30 seconds.
I stayed just long enough to get some photos then headed off somewhere quieter.
Visited 17 March 2005
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There's just so much here that's good -
- the extensive view taking in the sea
- the way the recumbent and surviving flanker fit together with near Inca-like precision
- the ring cairn, probably the best surviving example outside the restored Loanhead of Daviot
- the interesting way the recumbent is linked to the ring cairn and not the stone circle.
I'm not going to post plans of all the RSCs (they are referenced here http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/36258) but this one does help give a clearer picture of what's going on.
Difficult to argue here that the ring cairn was added after the circle and recently three RSC excavations by Bradley have shown that the ring cairn came first.
Visited 14 March 2005
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Not much of interest to see here but since it's in an area with a large concentration of RSCs you'll probably pass near to it travelling between other sites. It's worth stopping at for a quick look.
Access Easy. Park on the minor road at a point just NE of the site. Enter the open grassy area on the N of the road and head up to the left. No gates or fences.
Visited 18 March 2005
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Couldn't get worked up about this RSC.
It might have been the field clearance or the half-hearted flankers or the rather irritating fire-damaged and now speedboat-shaped recumbent. Nothing seemed to fit.
One interesting feature of the site should be the stones at right angles to the inside of the recumbent (unusual but best seen at East Aquhorthies) but the field clearance behind the recumbent makes it difficult to know what you are looking at.
One of the two low outliers to the SE has two Pictish symbols carved on it.
You'll get all the usual views etc from here but, I'd suggest, not one to go for if you're pushed for time.
Access. Easy parking near Ardlair Farm. Through one gate for the RSC and over a low fence for the outliers.
Visited 18 March 2005
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This is a great site but you really need a good day to fully appreciate it.
In the sun, the 3.1m white quartz outlier would look magnificent. In the dull flat light of the day of my visit, it was just another stone. Similarly the cupmarks needed a lot of faith to see and they just refused to be photographed.
Oh well, at least it wasn't raining.
Visited 18 March 2005
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What an idyllic site.
Sitting here by the stones on a tree stump in a sheltered suntrap with a babbling brook for company, I definitely felt an ode coming on.
Sadly, I'd left my pen and paper in the car so it's lost forever.
Three-quarters of a four-poster with stones up to 1.5m.
Access. There are various footpaths and tracks to the N which may lead to the circle. I decided to take the direct route by parking at NJ683155 where the stones can be seen and going in by the stream.
There is an unclimbable deer fence along the edge of the field so my way in was by the bridge using what can only be described as a "dreep".
Happily, it was much easier getting out.
Visited 16 March 2005
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"Walkers to Stone Circle welcome"
Now there's a sign you don't often see on fieldgates but that's what it says at this site.
This lovely six-stone circle has been restored by the local society.
Access Park at the parking area for the hill monument thing (NJ883307) and walk east to the access track prior to South Ythsie farm.
Visited 19 March 2005
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The seven stones here form an oval with an outlier but Thom interpreted them as the remains of two concentric circles plus an outlier.
Burl says it "may" have been an RSC with ring cairn now lacking its recumbent.
Either way it's definitely one to see.
Visited 15 March 2005
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An accessible but questionable site.
The stones, in their embanked platform, stand at the four cardinal points. Each has a metal ring embedded in it which, in 1900, held guy ropes to support a flagstaff. It has the air of a reconstructed site about it.
Access. You can park outside it and access to it from the road is along a roped off path which separates you from the horses which now occupy the field.
Visited 14 March 2005
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The same height as the nearby Langstane o' Craigearn (3.4m), this one is more imposing but suffers from being surrounded by trees.
Access. On the map this looks like it sits in a clear area between two lines of plantation. It doesn't. That clear area has been planted with trees now over 2m high. The stone itself sits in a clearing. Park at NJ712132, up the track NE then over two fences. I'd recommend having a GPS as there are no landmarks to follow.
Visited 16 March 2005
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Around noon, even in mid-March, is not a good time to visit a cup and ring-marked rock. But here the carvings are so strong that they still show up well in the mid-day sun.
This boulder is only a short distance from the RSC at Rothiemay which also carries cup and ring marks.
The views are not good; forestry on two sides one of them obscuring a view of Knock Hill to the N.
Access. Easy. Parking at NJ537468 then through two gates.
Visited 17 March 2005
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I've not mentioned hills much in these posts because it would become a bit repetitive (and they're all in the book anyway) but this one is possibly worthy of mention in that it is (I think) the only RSC where any of the major significant hills (Tap O'Noth in this case) is the hill which would be seen over the recumbent from the centre of the circle. The conical Knock Hill is also visible - 10km to the N.
The saddle-backed recumbent and two fallen stones are all that survive here.
There are markings on the recumbent which mark the line of the major southern moonset but they looked a bit glacial to me.
Access. Quite easy. Park at the houses at the railway bridge then through one gate and up a short steepish hill.
Visited 17 march 2005
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"The stones of this circle ... are so inconspicuous that most persons would walk past them unheeding."
So said Fred Coles in 1900 so it's hardly surprising that we have difficulty recognising it today!
I don't think I was any more successful than Merrick or Moth. I've posted a couple of pics of what there was to see.
They seem to match Merrick's description and presumably what Moth saw but it is difficult to make much sense of what's there.
From Coles' 1900 description (if you ignore his dimensions which he seems to have a problem with), this could well be an RSC.
He describes three almost concentric circles which are probably the inner and outer faces of the ring cairn and the outer circle of stones. It seems to bear a strong resemblance to nearby Auchquhorthies.
Not a mystery, just a mess.
Visited 14 March 2005
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Agreed Moth, this one should be better known (or, at least, documented) given its surviving condition and accessibility.
Open views on the recumbent side; in addition to the recumbent and flankers, three other stones remain standing. Not bad for a forestry site.
Being a Kincardineshire RSC, it is orientated towards the SE quadrant - 168 degrees.
Visited 14 March 2005
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Sites affect you differently.
More than halfway through the trip, I'd seen a few RSCs by now but this one really stopped me in my tracks.
Maybe it's the size and the way it leans towards you, beckoning you to come closer. Maybe its the fact that there are no circle stones so these three stones get your full attention.
Standing on its own with no distracting trees or fences (or ponies!) certainly helps.
This is the site that no advance reading had prepared me for. Minimalistic .... but then I like that.
3.9m long recumbent; flankers 2.5m and 2.8m. It's also one of many sites where the most interesting or best dressed side of the recumbent stone is on the outside. To be seen by the moon not the participants.
Visited 18 March 2005
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Second visit here. The first time (1999) the visit was rather curtailed due to the attention of the cattle which appear in some of the images.
It's such a wonderful site that I had to come back and this time I had the place to myself.
Access. . I agree with pebblesfromheaven about driving up to the site - although I can see that some might. But it is possible to drive to NJ864128 and park beside the cottages.
Visited 18 March 2005
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"Progress was all right. Only it went on too long."
James Thurber
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