Nether Cairn looking NE with Mendick Hill in the background.
For scale, my daysac is bottom right of the cairn.
greywether
Nether Cairn
Not too many different images you can take of a round cairn!.
This one looking N.
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
Coles (PSAS 37) writing of this site in the early 20th century records a conversation with the tenant farmer who stated that there was “in his father’s time, several great stones – none nearly so huge as the Carlin, however – in a Circle, within which was a very low mound or cairn ... At various times ... these blocks ... had been removed, the mound of stones carried away for dykes .... ”
This would add further support to this stone being the recumbent of a largely destroyed RSC.
Interesting chronology point following Bradley’s recent excavations. Revised from Canmore.
“... three small trenches were excavated at the Cothiemuir Wood stone circle, Donside. The trenches were designed to assess the structural sequence of the monument....
A low cairn, or platform of rubble, was constructed on a flat hilltop, which may have been scarped level. The platform was open at the centre and revetted on the exterior with an exterior buttress of rubble, and on the interior by a bank of massive boulders.
There may have been a cist in the middle of the site where the filling of an unrecorded excavation contains a number of burnt stones.
The recumbent stone circle was a later addition to the monument and the sockets of two of the monoliths could be seen to cut through the structure of the cairn...
The sequence is similar to that observed at Tomnaverie.”
3.1m. Taken from the road – I’d walked through enough glaur already this week.
19/3/05
Taken from road to W. Possibly the remains of a stone circle. 17/3/05
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
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
Some of the cupmarks and cup and ring marks on the inner face of the recumbent.
View from the S ie outside the circle area.
The stones are 2.1m and 2.3m high. The space between them is 4.6m.
Canmore: “the recumbent stone between them was removed in 1830 and put into the bank of the Don”.
16/3/05
Recumbent and W flanker from inside the circle.
In front of the recumbent is part of the “pavement” of stones which connects the recumbent to the ring cairn.
15/3/05
Auchquhorthies
Recumbent (3.0m) and W flanker (1.8m) from inside the circle.
Auchquhorthies
Looking NW over the recumbent and showing part of the ring cairn outer edge and the outer stone circle.
c 1900 plan of Auchquhorthies
(rotated 90 degrees to fit screen better)
Image credit: Fred Coles (PSAS 34)
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 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
Old Bourtreebush
Looking SE with the massive 2.2m high stone on the right.
Old Bourtreebush
Looking W and showing the four remaining upright stones.
In the foreground to the left (not too clear) is a large stone which has been suggested as a recumbent.
If so it would be pretty well due E, but then these Kincardineshire RSCs never did follow the rules!
PSAS articles
This link takes you to the PSAS volume index.
Volumes 34 to 39 inclusive contain articles on RSCs which, despite their age, are almost indispensible.
They comprise a six-part survey by Fred Coles of (probably) all the stone circles in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire including fine ground plans and stone measurements in each case.
Many site entries have excellent drawings of the stones (not so good on human figures though!) and, of course, it is always interesting to hear what the writer has to say about the circles based on the local knowledge around at the start of the last century.
Volume 102 has an article by Burl on RSCs including grid references on 74 definite and 18 probable RSC sites.
These PSAS references are all PDF articles, many of them very long.
Other web sites
Megalithics at megalithics.com/scotland.htm has some good movie panoramas of RSCs including some of the lesser well known ones.
This Aberdeen University site abdn.ac.uk/~lib266/stones/main.htm#index
has wide coverage of RSCs and other sites. Especially good on directions
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
Recumbent and flankers from inside the circle.
Spot the stones at right agles to the recumbent. One on the left possibly but, on the right, ...??
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
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
The recumbent, the west flanker, and two circle stones (the one to the left having cupmarks on its outer face).
