EAB20694 - Field Visit - CANDLE STANE

This recumbent stone circle occupies a prominent position a little to the S of the summit of Candle Hill, lying in a grass-grown clearing in the rowan and broom scrub on the E side of an old quarry. Only the Candle Stane itself (5) is still standing, but another seven stones, including the recumbent and its flankers, lie prone around the circumference of a circle 15.5m in diameter; the spacing of the stones indicates that there were originally at least nine, and possibly ten. The recumbent (2), which is on the S, is a roughly trapezoidal slab on plan and has fallen onto its back. It measures some 4m in length by 2m in breadth and its upturned face exhibits a single cupmark near the SW corner. The even summit of the slab, which now forms its NW edge, bears another faint cupmark and two broad basins. Both flankers (1 & 3) have also fallen backwards, but their shapes suggest that they would have appeared to arch over the ends of the recumbent when the setting was upright; the E flanker (3) exhibits two cupmarks on its upturned face. The NW quarter of the ring is particularly well defined, with the Candle Stane (5) on the N followed by an arc of three fallen orthostats (6–8) extending round to the W; the westernmost (8) exhibits two shallow cupmarks on its upper face. Another orthostat (4) lies displaced down the slope to the NE. The interior is dominated by a spoil-tip from the adjacent quarry, but the presence of an internal cairn beneath it is probably denoted by the slight swelling in the ground detectable in the drawn profile and a small exposure of closely packed stones immediately N of the recumbent.