Description

The monument comprises the remains of a stone circle dating to the third or second millennium BC. The monument is visible as a slightly elliptical setting of six upright stones. It is located in the grounds of a garden centre on a terrace to the east of the River Tummel, at around 80m above sea level. The monument was first scheduled in 1964, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The stone circle has an internal diameter of around 6m and now comprises six, regularly spaced, upright stones standing between 0.7m and 1.5m in height. The stone on the S side of the circle is significantly larger than the rest. The stone circle is likely to have been a ritual monument, used over a period of time for both ceremonial and funerary purposes. The interior was levelled and partly excavated in 1855 when it was reported that a range of funerary remains were uncovered, including four 'huge urns … full of calcined bones', which have not survived.

The scheduled area is circular on plan, 20m in diameter, to include the remains described above and an area around them 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

This monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of the past, in particular, stone circles of the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. This well-preserved example has the capacity to further our understanding of the construction, function, development and siting of such ritual monuments within central Perthshire and across Scotland, and to inform our understanding of the contemporary landscape in which the monument was constructed. The loss of this monument would significantly impede our ability to understand the ritual landscape of late Neolithic or early Bronze Age Perthshire and the importance of cosmology and topography in the siting of such monuments.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland: http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/canmore.html CANMORE ID 26313.

Coles, F R (1908) 'Report on stone circles surveyed in Perthshire - North Eastern section, with measured plans and drawings (obtained under the Gunning Fellowship)', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 42, 116-21, fig 23.

Thom, A (1967) Megalithic sites in Britain, 140, no P 2/2. Oxford.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/26313/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland