Description

The monument is a linear arrangement of the remains of three stone settings and a standing stone. The arrangement is broadly northeast-southwest with a stone setting at the northeastern end and the standing stone at the southwest. The stone settings are a type of monument often referred to as four poster stone circles, however, none of the examples at West Schurroch retain all four stones. The standing stone is no longer upright. The monument is located on a ridge running northeast to southwest known as West Schurroch at approximately 245m above sea level. Two of the stone settings are located within mixed woodland and the remaining setting and the standing stone are within improved pasture. 

The linear arrangement of stone settings and a standing stone at Baldovie is characteristic of monuments of the Bronze Age (2500 – 800BC). The three stone settings are around 40m apart from each other in a line running broadly northeast to southwest, the standing stone is a further 80m to the southwest. From northeast to southwest, the stone settings comprise a single stone, a triangular arrangement of three stones and a single stone. The northeastern stone setting is now reduced to a single stone in its original position measuring around 0.5m in height. The central setting with three stones survives as a triangular arrangement of three boulders ranging in size from 0.4m to 1m wide and standing 0.2m to 0.5m high; they are between 2m to 4m apart. The southwestern stone setting also now consists of a single standing stone, 1.4m high by 1m across. The fallen standing stone would have stood to around 1m in height.

The scheduled area comprises four circular areas. The westernmost measures 10m in diameter, and the other three areas are 15m in diameter. From east to west the scheduled areas comprise: 

• The northeastern stone setting, centred on NO 3183 5418, consisting of a single stone in its original position measuring around 0.5m in height;

• The central stone setting centred on NO 3179 5417, consisting of a triangular arrangement of three boulders ranging in size from 0.4m to 1m wide and standing 0.2m to 0.5m high; 

• The southwestern stone setting, centred NO 3175 5414, consisting of a single stone, 1.4m high by 1m across;

• The single standing stone, now fallen, centred on NO 3168 5411.

The scheduled area 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 as a group of stone settings and an associated standing stone.

b.   The monument retains structural attributes which make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past as a pair of four poster stone settings 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 group of stone settings and an associated standing stone. 

d.   The monument is a particularly good example of group of stone settings and an associated standing stone, 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 our understanding of the historic landscape. The three stone settings and standing stone are aligned on a prominent ridge and this landscape setting would have been of significance. 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 a rare linear alignment of three stone settings and a standing stone located on a prominent ridge top at West Schurroch. The three stone settings, one of which consists of an arrangement of three stones (the others have each only one remaining standing stone), have been identified as a monument type known as four poster stone circles or settings. Four poster stone settings all broadly form a square or rectangle, usually no bigger than 6m in width defined by upright stones at each of their corners, suggesting these examples are four poster settings but are missing a number of stones. This is supported by Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch mapping of the area which shows two settings (the northeastern and central) as having 4 stones forming rough rectangles and are annotated as stone circles.

The monument was first described as a group of three stone circles, or 'Druid's Alters' in 1793 (Old Statistical Account 1793). It is recorded that by 1862 the southwestern stone circle had been largely destroyed, with only one stone remaining (Ordnance Survey Name Book 1862). This survives today as a single standing stone. There is potential for surviving archaeological deposits around this surviving stone including burials and sockets for the removed stones. 

The northeastern stone setting was damaged in 2019 by the construction of a forestry track. Two of the stones were moved and the majority of the archaeological deposits associated with the setting are likely to have been removed at that time. However, there is potential for some surviving archaeological deposits (it was recorded in 1862 that an urn had been found within this setting and this is likely to have been a prehistoric urn associated with cremated human remains). It also has a clear spatial relationship with the other elements of the monument. It is likely that burial remains will also survive at the central stone setting, which appears to have been less disturbed. Further research into the stone settings 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.

Standing stones are found throughout Scotland. In some excavated examples, such as at Carlinwell, Angus (scheduled monument SM4315) inhumations or cremation burials have been found placed around standing stones and this includes skeletal material as well as urns and grave goods. Surviving environmental remains can help us understand more about the vegetation cover and land use at the time of its erection and then use. Scientific study of this monument when compared to others has the potential to increase our understanding of the distribution and use of prehistoric ritual monuments in the Bronze Age. A second stone, to the southwest of the ridge, was previously scheduled as part of the monument. It is not geologically nor morphologically similar to the other stones on the ridge and does not appear to be part of the linear arrangement of stone settings and standing stones. Lidar imagery, from the Scottish Remote Sensing Portal collected between November 2012 and April 2014 shows that this stone was part of an earthen field boundary, and it is likely to relate to this feature rather than the monument aligned on the ridge. This information was not available when the site was amended in 2015.

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

The monument is a rare linear arrangement of three small four poster stone settings and an associated standing stone of Bronze Age date. The surviving stone settings and are located almost equidistantly along the ridge (each is around 40m apart) as is described in earlier sources.

A corpus of four poster stone settings was published by Burl in 1988 who catalogued 101 sites, of which only 52 were classed as certain. The majority of these sites are in Scotland with a particular concentration in eastern Scotland. Burl noted another example of two four poster stone circles or settings at Brankam Hill (scheduled monument SM4419), only 2.5km northwest of Baldovie, and considered it almost unique. This suggests that the alignment on the ridge at West Schurroch is a very rare feature, incorporating the remains of three stone settings and a standing stone. Although two of the stone settings are presently within woodland the arrangement was clearly situated to be in a prominent and elevated location on the West Schurroch ridge that would have had wide views over the surrounding countryside.

By themselves, four poster stone settings are a rare monument type which to 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. Therefore, the monument at Baldovie is an important example of a group of four poster settings which survive with above ground elements. Four poster stone settings 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). Study of the form, location and other characteristics of this monument with other four poster stone settings or other stone alignments, 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.

Individual standing stones are a widespread class of monument across Scotland. There are over 1200 examples recording in the National Record of the Historic Environment, 24 of which are located in Angus. They are thought to be markers that may have served multiple uses to the communities that raised them. Some appear to be associated with funerary rites, while others are prominently located and may have served both a ritual function and as territorial markers. Standing stones are associated with stone circles or settings and are sometimes located in prominent sightlines to and from the circles. The standing stone at Baldovie is located near the western end of the ridge and it likely that that location was chosen so that the stone would be visible from the west and would have been prominent in view from the south-westernmost stone setting.

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

There are no known associative characteristics that 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 32348 (accessed on 14/10/2022).

Local Authority HER Reference NO35SW0001 Aberdeenshire Council Historic Environment Record - Angus - NO35SW0001 - MEIKLE KENNY, BALDOVIE (accessed on 14/10/2022).

Ashmore P J (1996). Neolithic and Bronze Age Scotland. B.T Batsford Ltd, London.

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.

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. http://www.tafac.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/v24-EllisRitchie-p21-38.pdf

Gordon, J (ed.) The New Statistical Account of Scotland / by the ministers of the respective parishes, under the superintendence of a committee of the Society for the Benefit of the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy. Kingoldrum, Forfar, Vol. 11, Edinburgh: Blackwoods and Sons, 1845, p. 615. University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow. (1999) The Statistical Accounts of Scotland online service: https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk:443/link/nsa-vol11-p615-parish-forfar-kingoldrum (accessed on 14/10/2022).

Ordnance Survey (Name Book (1848-1878). Object Name Books of the Ordnance Survey (6 inch and 1/2500 scale). Book No. 54, pg. 41. OS1/14/54/41 | ScotlandsPlaces (accessed on 14/10/2022).

Sinclair, Sir John. The Statistical Account of Scotland, Kingoldrum, Forfar, Vol. 9, Edinburgh: William Creech, 1793, p. 131. University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow. (1999) The Statistical Accounts of Scotland online service: https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk:443/link/osa-vol9-p131-parish-forfar-kingoldrum (accessed on 14/10/2022).

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

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/32348/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland