EAB11905 - Excavation - BALGORKAR, CASTLE FRASER

Dalrymple found evidence that the site had been levelled before the erection of the stones. He also found a central space, 4 m across, lined with slabs, beneath which were deposits of charcoal and cremated bone. Sherds of 'a thick and massive urn' were found by the fallen stone to the west of the west flanker. The burnt layer ran under the standing stones suggesting an earlier, or contemporary, date with the erection of the circle. Quartzite was also found on the site. In 2003, an assemblage of finds from Dalyrmple's excavations, thought to be long lost, were discovered in the Castle Fraser collection. The finds comprise three sherds of Late Bronze Age flat-rimmed ware, a large number of pieces of daub with wattle impressions and two fragments of charcoal. The finds' original wrappings bear the date of the excavation, 2 September 1856. One wrapper is labelled bones, but a thorough search of the collection failed to turn up any skeletal material.