EAB20696 - Field Visit - CORR STONE

This recumbent stone circle is situated within a deciduous plantation on the summit of the hill above Mains of Druminnor. The traces of rig-and-furrow visible in the plantation to the SW of the circle show that it once stood in farmland, but the ground had been enclosed and planted with conifers by the mid 19th century and now provides a convenient spot for dumping field-gathered stones. One of the dumps occupies a substantial part of the interior of the circle, which measures up to 28m in diameter if the six surviving stones on the western quarter are a reliable guide. They include the recumbent and its flankers on the SSW, but only the W flanker is upright and this was re-erected in the summer of 1799 (Name Book, Aberdeenshire, No. 6, p 85). The recumbent slab (2) has fallen onto its back and now lies in two unequal pieces; before being split it measured about 4.1m in length by up to 1.95 in breadth and would have been an imposing slab when it was upright. The flankers are of similar sizes, the western (1) measuring 2.25m in height, as against the eastern’s (3) length of 2.6m. The three orthostats lying on the W (4–6) have also fallen forwards, each measuring over 2m in length, but in their present positions it is no longer possible tell whether their height and spacing was originally graded. Nevertheless, taken at face value they indicate a relatively large circle comprising the recumbent setting and at least fourteen orthostats. The row of six rectangular wedge sockets cut by stone breakers along the length of orthostat 4 clearly demonstrates the fate of the missing stones, though what may have been one of them (A) lies on a heap of stones and boulders to the W of the circle.