Description

The stone setting at Garleffin lies on the fifty foot raised beach terrace to the S of the River Stinchar. The area around the stones has produced a large number of late mesolithic artefacts which are probably indicative of settlement and related activities. Several of the stones have recently been felled and removed.

Six of the standing stones formed a curvilinear alignment extending over a distance of about 200m. A seventh forms an outlier to the E. The two southernmost stones are located in a residential garden where they form ornamental features surrounded by flowerbeds. The five remaining stones were situated within an arable field. The stones range from a slab of conglomerate measuring 1.2m by 0.7m at the base

and 1.3m in height. One stone was recumbent.

The northernmost stone was removed to the W side of the terrace by the new owner late in 1991 and in January 1992, after notification of Historic Scotland's intentions to schedule the site, the remaining four stones within the field were also removed. Nonetheless associated archaeological remains may survive and it will be possible

to re-erect these stones as a landscape feature.

The mesolithic aspects of this area have been well known since the 1930s and the area around the stones in particular is noted as an area of dense lithic finds. In 1985 in-situ flints were noted, together with an associated pit with charcoal layers which was exposed on the edge of the terrace, and there is therefore a strong possibility that further structural remains may survive.

The area to be scheduled includes the upper river terrace, defined on its W by the stream, on the E by the public road, extending S into the E side of the garden of the house known as Druidslea, but excluding the main road, house and drive. This area includes the original settings of the stones and an area around in which traces of associated activities may survive, as well as an important part of the area which has produced mesolithic settlement evidence, as marked in red on the attached map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance for its potential to provide information about the activities of mesolithic society in an area particularly noted for the relative wealth of such sites. Despite the removal of five of the seven stones of the later setting there is still the potential to recover important evidence for the nature of late neolithic or early bronze age ritual and associated activity at a type of monument which has few exact parallels in Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NX08SE 1.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland