Rock Art Database

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Section A. CORE INFORMATION

A1. Identifiers

Classifications And Periods

County

BANFFSHIRE

A2. Grid Reference(original find site)

A3. Current Location & Provenance

Section B. CONTEXT

B1. Landscape Context

B2. Current land use & vegetation

• No selection

B3. Forestry

• No selection

B4. Archaeological Features within 200m / or visible from the panel

• No selection

B5. Location Notes

The panel is currently covered by deep turf, which was not removed.

Previous Notes

Five standing stones can be seen about 300m west of the River Avon. It is probable that this is the site of a Clava-type cairn. The stones would have formed a circle, measuring just over 30m in diameter, which surrounded a circular cairn. The north-easterly standing stone has cup marks on its surface. Until recently cairns of this type, which are found around Inverness and in Moray, were thought to be of Neolithic date, but excavations in the late twentieth century have shown them to belong to the Early Bronze Age. Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project at http://www.accessingscotlandspast.org.uk

NJ13NE 10 1796 3595. (NJ 1796 3595) Stone Circle (NR). (Remains of). OS 6" map, Banffshire, 2nd ed., (1905) The remains of a stone circle of 65ft diameter, consisting of 3 standing stones and 2 fallen stones, that on the NE being covered with cupmarks. The stones stand on the edge of a low turfy mound with a slight central hollow, and may represent the remains of a Clava chambered cairn. F R Coles 1907; A S Henshall 1963. Almost certainly the remains of a Clava-type cairn as described and illustrated, the five stones being part of the outer circle of monoliths. Only sight ground disturbance indicates the cairn and it cannot be ascertained whether it has been a passage grave or a ring cairn. Re-surveyed at 1/2500. Visited by OS (N K B) 12 July 1967.

The five remaining orthostats of this circle stand on a flat-topped mound of stones at the edge of a field about 100m north-east of Lagmore. The mound has been clipped by ploughing on every side and now forms a rounded quadrilateral shape on plan. It measures up to 27m from east to west by 25m transversely and 0.5m in height, and extends from 2m to 6m beyond the projected circumference of the circle. The latter is about 21m in diameter and may have comprised up to seventeen orthostats if the spacing of the two still standing on the north-north-west (4 and 5) was maintained throughout the circumference. At 1.3m and 1.2m high respectively, these two stones are also the shortest, comparing with a height of 1.9m for the fractured and split slab standing on the south-west (1) and a length of 3.3m for the fallen stone on the south-east (2). Given this disparity, it is probable that the orthostats were graded to reduce in height from south to north. The fifth orthostat, which lies prone on the north-east (3) exhibits about 23 cupmarks on its upper surface. A shallow hollow lies slightly eccentrically within the stone circle and east by 9m transversely. The presence of this hollow has led to the identification of the mound as the remains of a ring-cairn, but there is no trace of an inner kerb. In truth this feature may be no more than a stone-robberís pit, and if Colesí description of the interior as ëfairly smooth and levelí (1907a, 141) is correct, it may have been dug since 1906. The rest of the circle, however, had been reduced to its present state by 1869 (Name Book, Banffshire, No. 17, p 62). Lying within the fringes of the distribution of Clava-type cairns, and with an example of a Clava passage grave standing only 300m to the west-south-west (NJ13NE 9), there has been an assumption that Lagmore East also belongs in that general category (Henshall 1963, 390; Burl 1976a, 355, Ban 6; 2000, 424, Ban 7). Barnatt, however, considered that it might be a ruined recumbent stone circle, though in the light of the passage grave at Lagmore West he too was inclined to regard Lagmore East as a Clava cairn (1989, 263, no. 5:30). It cannot be stated too firmly that there is no evidence either on the ground or in the antiquarian sources that there was ever a recumbent setting here. That said, it is not particularly helpful to shoehorn this circle into the Clava group by default. As Keith Blood of the OS recognised in 1967, it is not possible to tell whether there has ever been a chamber or an internal court within this circle, and the possibility remains that it was never anything more than a stone circle set on a low flat-topped cairn.

Section C. PANEL

C1. Panel Type

C2. Panel Dimensions, Slope & Orientation

C3. Rock Surface

C4. Surface Features

• No selection

C5. Panel Notes

No notes added

C6. Probability

The probability that there is any rock art on the panel is not mentioned

Comments

No comments added

C7. MOTIFS

Visible Tool Marks? No

Visible Peck Marks? No

Section D. ACCESS, AWARENESS & RISK

D1. Access

• Panel is on Private land.

D2. Awareness

• No selection

There are stories or folk traditions associated with this panel No

D3. Risk

Natural

• No selection

Animal

• There are sheep near the rock.

Human

• No selection

Comments and other potential threats

The standing stone circle was easily located, but only 4 stones were clearly visible. None of these were the stone that had been recorded as having rock art. A close investigation of the area where the 5th stone had previously been identified led to the conclusion that this horizontal stone has now become completely overgrown with an, approximately, 12cm layer of turf. The grass on this area was shorter than the surrounding area and probing resulted in identifying that a rocky surface lay underneath. As it would have required a major task of de-turfing to further investigate if the rock art stone was underneath, it was decided to leave it as it is. 2 photographs have been included in the photograph section of the area where the rock art stone is suspected to be. The 4 visible stones of this circle are sited within a field that has been used for sheep in the past. On the day of the visit the field had been cut recently, but the area around the stone circle was left rough grass. At the moment, the suspected rock art stone is covered over with a thick layer of vegetation, so it is unlikely that it would become damaged from animal interaction.