Loudon Wood stone circle
The Loudon Wood Stone Circle (also called Pitfour Circle) is located in a forest, northwest of Mintlaw, about 17.0 km west of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire , Scotland . It is an incomplete stone circle type Recumbent Stone Circle (RSC). A characteristic of the RSC is a "lying stone" accompanied by two standing, high, often tapering "flank stones" that are located within the circle or near the circle.
The stone circles on the River Dee
The stone circles of the "Deeside" region form a group of Recumbent Stone Circle (RSC). About 100 of them were born between 2500 and 1500 BC. Built in BC.
The stone circle of Loudon Wood includes the "lying stone" and four orthostats , two of which have fallen over, as well as the southern half of an oval ring wall from about 23.0 by 20.0 m. The stones of the circle stood on the inner edge of the ring wall. The circle measures approximately 19.6 m by 17.5 m. The "lying stone" in the southwest is about 3.2 m long, 1.15 m high and weighs 12 tons. Its relatively flat top dips at the west end in the direction of the adjacent flank stone. There is a stone threshold under the back at the west end. A small dish ( English cup ) is located a little west from the highest point. The flank stone preserved in situ is about 2.2 m high, while its overturned counterpart on the east side is of similar size and shape. Despite a number of missing stones, the height of the circle stones seems to have been graduated, with the highest on the south side. The stone ring wall is up to 3.5 m wide and 0.4 m high. In its present form, the rampart is more substantial than is normally the case with the circles of Buchan (e.g. Aikey Brae ).
literature
- J. Barnatt: Stone circles of Britain: taxonomic and distributional analyzes and a catalog of sites in England, Scotland and Wales, In: Brit Archaeol Rep, BAR British, Vol. 215, 2v. Oxford 1989
- CLN Ruggles: A New Study of the Aberdeenshire Recumbent Stone Circles, I In: Site Data, Archaeoastronomy (Supplement to J History of Astronomy 15), Vol. 6. 1984
- IAG Shepherd: Exploring Scotland's heritage: Grampian, In: Exploring Scotland's heritage series. Edinburgh. 1986
- A. Welfare: Great Crowns of Stone: The Recumbent Stone Circles of Scotland . Edinburgh. 2011
Web links
- Description Engl. and pictures
- Entry on Loudon Wood Stone Circle in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database
- Description Engl. and picture
- Video
Coordinates: 57 ° 32 '16 " N , 2 ° 4' 0.5" W.