Description

The monument comprises a single standing stone likely to date to the late Neolithic or Bronze Age. It survives as an upstanding monolith within a cultivated field, approximately 100m above sea level. The standing stone is located on N-facing, gently sloping ground less than two km south of the River Don and WNW of the locally high ground surrounding Tyrebagger Hill.

The earthfast granite boulder measures 0.6m at its widest and is approximately 1.5m high. It is broadly square in plan, tapering slightly towards its top and it leans very slightly to the south-east. The remains of what may be packing stones are visible around its base.

The area to be scheduled is circular on plan centred on the stone, to include the remains described and an area around within which evidence relating to their construction and use may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

Cultural Significance

The monument's cultural significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics

This single standing stone survives in an upstanding form and associated structural remains may survive around and beneath its base, telling us more about how prehistoric people positioned and secured it. Further evidence such as dating material and environmental remains may also survive and this could help us build up a picture of the prehistoric environment and more accurate date for the stone's erection.

Contextual characteristics

The monument is a good example from a widespread and numerous class of prehistoric monument, the single standing stone. It is one of the small- to medium-sized and naturally shaped examples and it sits in the Strathdon landscape among a number of other contemporary stone-built monuments including other single standing stones, stone settings, stone circles and burial cairns. The strath represents an area of extensive late-Neolithic and Bronze-Age activity where over 50 examples of standing stones are recorded (with this example sitting among a local cluster of five, in the immediate area of Tyrebagger Hill). Researchers believe the distribution of standing stones is broadly similar to that of burial cairns and that the interconnections and routes between standing stones are as important as their inherent character as focal points for ritual activity. The monument therefore has the potential to tell us more about ways in which late-Neolithic and Bronze-Age communities moved around and used this landscape for ceremony and ritual.

National Importance

The monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the past, in particular prehistoric standing stones and the role they played in prehistoric life and death. Comparison with local clusters and wider distributions of these monuments across NE Scotland can reveal more about the ways in which late-Neolithic and Bronze-Age people settled here and the significance they placed upon landscapes such as Strathdon. The loss of the monument would impede our ability to understand the development of late-Neolithic and Bronze-Age communities in Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NJ81SW 3. Aberdeenshire Council SMR records the monument as NJ81SW0002.

References:

Coles F R 1902, 'Report on the stone circles In Aberdeenshire (Inverurie, Eastern Parishes, and Insch Districts) with measured plans and drawings, obtained under the Gunning Fellowship', PROC SOC ANTIQ SCOT 36, 488-581.

RCAHMS 2007, IN THE SHADOW OF BENNACHIE: THE FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY OF DONSIDE, ABERDEENSHIRE, Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland