Description

The monument comprises a type of stone setting known as a four poster stone circle which dates to the Bronze Age (2500 – 800BC). The setting is rectangular on plan defined by three tall stones at the north, south and east corners; the western stone is missing. In between these standing stones are large kerbstones. The interior is filled with stones and boulders and are likely to be field clearance. The stone setting  is situated in improved pasture at the rear of a narrow terrace on an east-facing slope overlooking Glen Dronach at around 160m above sea level.

The monument is rectangular on plan and measures 4.3m from northwest to southeast by 3.7m across. The setting has three tall standing stones measuring from 1m to 1.28m in height, at the north, south and east points but the fourth on the west is missing. Although the eastern standing stone is the tallest, that on the north may have been damaged in the past. It is not certain that these stones were graded in height. In between them are large kerbstones – two each on the southwest, southeast and northeast sides. The configuration of stones suggests that the northeast and southwest sides of the stone setting originally had four kerbstones, while the northwest and southeast sides only had three. The interior of the setting is filled with stones and boulders which rise 0.3 above the tallest of the orthostats and are likely to be field clearance.

The scheduled area is circular, measuring 25m in diameter. It includes the remains described above and an area around within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The national importance of the monument is demonstrated in the following way(s) (see Designations Policy and Selection Guidance, Annex 1, para 17): 

a.  The monument is of national importance because it makes a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past or has the potential to do so as four poster stone circle, one of only 60 that have been recorded in Scotland. 

b.   The monument retains structural attributes which make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past as a recumbent four poster stone circle or stone setting of the Bronze Age. Study of the form, layout and construction techniques has the potential to increase our understanding of this monument and other similar monuments. 

c.   The monument is a rare example of a four poster stone circle or stone setting, one of only 40, of a total of 60, that with surviving upstanding features. 

d.   The monument is a particularly good example of a four poster stone circle  or stone setting, retaining many original features and is therefore an important representative of this monument type. 

e.   The monument has research potential which could significantly contribute to our understanding or appreciation of the past in particular prehistoric religious practice, the chronological development of religious monuments and wider changes in society in Bronze Age communities 

f.   The monument makes a significant contribution to or our understanding of the historic landscape as four poster stone circle which would have been part of a wider domestic and ritual landscape. Study of this monument in relationship to the other monuments of a similar date in the area can enhance our understanding of these monuments within the historic landscape 

Assessment of Cultural Significance

This statement of national importance has been informed by the following assessment of cultural significance:

Intrinsic characteristics (how the remains of a site or place contribute to our knowledge of the past)

The monument is an upstanding and well preserved four poster stone circle which is situated in improved pasture at the rear of a narrow terrace on an east-facing slope overlooking Glen Dronach.

 Although now classified as a four poster stone circle, the form of Raich has had a variety of interpretations. In the 18th and 19th centuries the statistical accounts record that there were remnants of several 'druidical temples' in the parish. Although Raich is not mentioned by name it is likely to have been one of these 'temples'. The Ordnance Survey refer to Raich as a stone circle (Banffshire & Aberdeenshire 1872, Sheet XXII. 13). The site was surveyed in 1903 (Coles 1903, 125-7) and that time was deemed to be a small stone circle.

This interpretation was challenged in the 1920s and 30s by Alexander Keiller who thought that Raich and a similar monument Sheithen (4 Shethin Cottages, cairn 310m WNW of, scheduled monument SM12426) were the remains of chambered cairns. Aubrey Burl recognised that Raich was a stone setting and later reinterpreted the monument as a four poster stone circle. Further research into this site has the potential to evidence for the form, function, development and use of this monument over time, as well as environmental evidence that will aid the reconstruction of what the local area looked like when the monument was built.

Contextual characteristics (how a site or place relates to its surroundings and/or to our existing knowledge of the past)

Four poster stone circles are a rare monument type, . The National Record of the Historic Environment records only 60, and of these 19 are recorded through aerial photograph as cropmarked sites. The monument at Raich Farm is an important example of a four poster setting which survives with above ground elements. 

Four poster stone all broadly share several physical characteristics. They form a square or rectangle, usually no bigger than 6m in width. They are often small monuments, and some appear to be aligned on cardinal points of the compass. Some four posters appear to have been built on small mounds or cairns, and some are graded in height. Of those that survive as upright stones, a large number have at least one fallen stone. There are also examples where a smaller kerb of stone occurs between the standing stones while others have a kerb of stone that edges the platform or mound upon which many of these sites sit. Other four posters have had the platform or mound added to with cairn material. It has been suggested that four posters may have been aligned to specific lunar or solar alignments and events, framing specific views to and from the monument (Ellis and Ritchie 2018, 34-35).

Four poster stone circles date from the Bronze Age (2500 – 800BC) and form part of a broad suite of ritual and funerary sites such as cairns, cremation cemeteries and rock art panels from this period. Raich is one of only six four posters known from Aberdeenshire, and one of only three in Aberdeenshire to survive as an upstanding monument. Recumbent stone circles are a more common feature of landscape of north-east Scotland such Yonder Bognie (scheduled monument SM56) Cairnton (scheduled monument SM11) and Frendraught (Canmore ID 18370) all of which are within 3km of Raich, while four poster settings are concentrated in Perth and Kinross, with other examples scatter across Scotland and the north of England. Raich represents the increasing spread of prehistoric farming communities and their associated belief systems during the Bronze Age. Study of the form, location and other characteristics of this monument with other four posters and more widely other Bronze Age funerary or ritual monuments has the potential to enhance our understanding of the Bronze Age ritual landscape and the purpose of these monuments. 

Associative characteristics (how a site or place relates to people, events, and/or historic and social movements)

There are no known associative characteristics which contribute to this monument's national importance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE ID 18361 (accessed on 21/03/2022).

Aberdeenshire HER/SMR. Reference NJ64SW0001 (accessed on 29/03/2022)

Burl, A (1988). Four posters. Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe. BAR British Series 195. British Archaeological Reports: Oxford.

Burl, A (2000). The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. Yale.

Coles, F. (1903). "Report on the Stone Circles of North-Eastern Scotland, chiefly in Auchterless and Forgue, with measured Plans and Drawings, obtained under the Gunning Fellowship" in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 37, pp. 82-142. Accessed online at Report on the Stone Circles of North-Eastern Scotland, chiefly in Auchterless and Forgue, with measured Plans and Drawings, obtained under the Gunning Fellowship | Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (socantscot.org)

Ellis C and Ritchie M (2018).'The excavation of Na Clachan Aoraidh, a four poster stone circle in Northern Perthshire' in Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, Vol. 24 pp. 21-34. Accessed online at v24-EllisRitchie-p21-38.pdf (tafac.org.uk)

ScARF 2012 Downes, J (ed) Bronze Age Panel Report, Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Accessed online at https://tinyurl.com/v8yd423

Welfare, A. (2011). Great Crowns of Stone: The Recumbent Stone Circles of Scotland. Edinburgh.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/18361/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland