EAB20701 - Field Visit and Measured Survey - CAIRNTON

The site of this recumbent stone circle falls on a slight terrace on a SE-facing slope, but only the recumbent and its W flanker remain in place, and these are subsumed into a large pile of field-gathered stones. The recumbent (2), which is a metamorphosed block of quartzite, faces S and measures 2.85m in length by 1.55m in height. The W flanker, a pillar some 2.25m high, stands slightly forward of the recumbent’s leading face and the overall outlook of the setting may have been closer to SSE than S. Whether the recumbent is in its original position, however, is difficult to judge, for the rear of the stone has evidently been blasted, also destroying the W end of its relatively level summit. A possible cupmark can be seen close to the upper eastern corner of its leading face. RCAHMS surveyed the remains of Cairnton recumbent stone circle on 6 April 2005 with plane table and alidade producing a plan and section of the site and an elevation of the recumbent stone and flanker at a scale of 1:100. The plan, section and elevation were redrawn in ink and used as the basis for an illustration produced in vector graphics software and published at a scale of 1:250.