Description

The monument consists of a group of prehistoric sites: two cairns, a pair of standing stones and the remains of a stone circle. The sites stand in a rough NNW-SSE orientation on a N-facing slope running down to Cauldside Burn.

Highest on the slope, the most southerly site is the stone circle. Ten stones remain in situ, indicating an original diameter of 23m. Only one of the thin, slabby, stones is more than 1m high. All are set with their long axes along the circumference. 5m to the NNW is large round cairn, 21m in diameter and 2.5m high. It has a hollowed centre showing a collapsed cist. Around the cairn, particularly on the E, is what may be a platform some 1.5m wide, but this may be a result of stone-robbing. 75m NNE again a pair of short earthfast stones lie 10m apart. They are not quite aligned on the cairns which lie on either side of them. The fourth element of the monument is another cairn, which is either much reduced or else was originally of ring-cairn form. It now consists of a circular earthen and stone bank with an internal stony mound. The bank is 12.3m in overall diameter, 0.7m wide and 0.2m high. The central mound is 5.5m across and 0.6m high, and contains an off-centre cist with displaced capstone.

The area to be scheduled is irregular, measuring 50m ENE-WSW by a maximum of 205m NNW-SSE, bounded on the NNW by the Cauldside Burn. This contains all of the elements listed above and an area around them in which evidence relating to their construction, use and inter-relationship may survive, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a very unusual grouping of prehistoric site-types, probably of Bronze Age date. The combination of stone circles, stone setting and two types of cisted cairns in such close proximity, in an area covered by peat, offers remarkable potential for the investigation of the inter-relationships of these various elements, both in stratigraphic and funerary terms.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

The monument is recorded in the RCAHMS as NX 55 NW 25, NX 55 NW 8, NX 55 NW 9, NX 55 NW 22, and NX 55 NW 24.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland