Ardlair stone circle
The stone circle of Ardlair (also called Holywell) is a stone circle type Recumbent Stone Circle (RSC) at a low, grassy hills southwest of the Ardlair farm east of Rhynie in Aberdeenshire in Scotland . The circles common on the River Dee were made between 2300 and 1800 BC. Built in BC.
From the stone circle with a diameter of 10.5 m only the flanking stones of the "lying stone" and a single stone of the circle remained upright. In 1857, a low wall of earth and stone was discovered within the district, but off-center. The ground had been excavated within the 4.5 m diameter wall, presumably to obtain material for the wall.
The west-east oriented lying stone is 2.55 m long, 1.35 m high and up to 0.9 m wide. On the back of the stone, which protrudes inward, there are two approximately 0.9 m long, approximately 0.9 m apart, needle-like parallel stones. The stones flanking the lying stone are 1.35 and 1.25 m high. The only other upright stone that Frederick Rhenius Coles (1854–1929) saw in 1900 was 1.5 m high. The four fallen or crooked stones were about six feet long. In 1857 there were still seven circle stones (in addition to the lying stone and its flanks) that were between 1.2 and 1.65 m high.
The circle was excavated in 1857 by CE Dalrymple. On the south side, within the circle at a depth of about 0.3 m, he found a pit 1.2 m in diameter and 0.6 m deep, covered by two 0.9 m long 0.3 m wide stones, leaning against each other like a roof. The pit was filled with stones and pale yellow clay. A small amount of burned bones and charcoal was found above. No urns were found from Dalrymple, but Coles learned from farmers in Holywell that an urn had been found on the circle in 1821.
Dalrymple noted a pile of earth and stones about 12.0 meters northwest of the stone circle. It was about 10.0 m long, 3.0 m wide and a little over 0.3 m high. In its center was a 1.8 m long 0.9 m wide and 0.75 m deep pit in the longitudinal direction. At the northern end there was a stone about 2.0 meters long, which lay across, level with the ground and under which the end of the pit consisted of smaller stones. Coles mentions that Mr. Henderson told him he saw a tombstone 10 or 12 meters southwest of the stone circle. This could be the “outer pillar” mentioned by Callander in 1935.
Nearby is the Corrstone Wood stone circle.
literature
- Aubrey Burl: A guide to the stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. Yale University Press, London 1995, ISBN 0-300-06331-8 .
- R. Bradley: The Moon and the Bonfire: An Investigation of Three Stone Circles in NE Scotland (2005) Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
- Frederick Rhenius Coles: Report on stone circles surveyed in Perthshire (Aberfeldy District) , Proc Soc Antiq Scot, Vol. 44, 1909-10. P. 165
- C. Richards: Building the Great Stone Circles of the North (2013) Windgather Press
- A. Welfare: Great Crowns of Stone (2011) RCAHMS
Individual evidence
- ↑ A characteristic of the RSC is a "lying stone" accompanied by two standing, high, often tapering "flank stones" that are located within the stone circle or near the circle.
Web links
- Description and picture
- Description and picture
- Entry on Ardlair Stone Circle in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database
- Description and pictures
Coordinates: 57 ° 20 ′ 23.3 " N , 2 ° 44 ′ 40.9" W.