Cullerlie

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Cullerlie

Cullerlie (also Druidical Circle at Leuchar ) is a stone circle near Echt in the Grampian region . It is located southwest of Westhill in Aberdeenshire in Scotland .

description

Cullerlie, floor plan

The circle was built on a gravel tongue, which at the time of construction protruded into the surrounding swamp area (Leuchar Moss) as a low ridge .

The stone circle consists of eight irregularly high menhirs made of red granite , the highest of which is in the north. The stones of the circle had to be transported from a distance. Eight small stone mounds are densely packed within the stone circle of about 10.2 m in diameter.

Digs

An excavation took place in 1934 under the direction of Kilbridie-Jones. He describes the structure as unique. He was able to prove that the base of the monoliths had been exposed to fire after they were erected.

The 1934 excavation showed that the outer circle was built first. The ground inside the circle was burned out by burning willow branches . The largest cairn, framed by a double row of medium-sized curbs, has a diameter of 3.4 m and was built in the center of the circle. The other seven were built in a ring around it. Six of them are set with a simple row of eleven curbs. The seventh has only nine curbs, but because the circles have the same diameter, they are larger. Charcoal , corpse fire, flint artefacts (“three small pieces of worked flint”) and an undated shard were found in five stone mounds . It is therefore not known whether the Cairns were occupied successively or simultaneously.

environment

The other stone circles in the region are almost all of the Recumbent Stone Circle (RSC) type. From this group of monuments, Cullerlie differs in the absence of the lying stone and the fact that the largest stone is in the north rather than the south-west.

literature

  • Anna Ritchie, James Neil, Graham Ritchie: Scotland. To Oxford Archaeological Guide . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-288002-0 , p. 136.
  • Aubrey Burl: A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany . Second Edition, Yale University Press, November 4, 2005, ISBN 0-19-288002-0 , pp. 98-99.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Howard E. Kilbridie-Jones: On account of the excavation of the Stone Circle at Loanhead of Daviot, and of the standing stones of Cullerlie, Real, Both in Aberdeenshire, on behalf of HM Office of Works. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland , Vol. 69, p. 215. ( online )
  2. ^ Aubrey Burl: A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany . Second Edition, Yale University Press, November 4, 2005, ISBN 0-300-11406-0 , pp. 98-99.
  3. ↑ a b c H. E. Kilbridie-Jones: An account of the excavation of the Stone Circle at Loanhead of Daviot, and of the standing stones of Cullerlie, Echt, both in Aberdeenshire, on behalf of the HM Office of Works. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland , Vol. 69, pp. 278-310. ( online )
  4. ^ Richard Bradley: The moon and the bonfire, an investigation of three stone circles in north-east Scotland. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2005, ISBN 0903903334 , p. 106

Web links

Commons : Cullerlie Stone Circle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 57 ° 7 '44.1 "  N , 2 ° 21' 24.7"  W.