There are three
Clava cairn
The Clava cairn is a type of Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn, named after the group of three cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, to the east of Inverness in Scotland. There are about 50 cairns of this type in an area round about Inverness. They ...
s in or near the Scottish Highland town of
Aviemore
Aviemore (; gd, An Aghaidh Mhòr ) is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popul ...
. All three were described by
Caleb George Cash
Caleb George Cash (1857–1916), honorary fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (FRSGS), was a geographer, passionate mountaineer, and music and geography teacher, known for his work on preserving the maps of medieval Scotland mad ...
, an honorary fellow of the
Royal Scottish Geographical Society
The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland founded in 1884. The purpose of the society is to advance the subject of geography worldwide, inspire people to learn more about the world around ...
, in 1906.
Delfour stone circle
The stone circle is 4 miles SW of
Aviemore railway station
, symbol_location = gb
, symbol = rail
, image = 2018 at Aviemore station - footbridge.JPG
, caption = Aviemore railway station in 2018
, borough = Aviemore, Highland
, country = Scotland
, coordinates =
, grid_name = Grid reference
, ...
, and 2 miles NNE of
Kincraig railway station, and in 1906 was located near a cottage. Its condition, as described by Cash in 1906, is ruinous; it could hardly be recognized as anything other than "a heap of stones cleared by the farmer from his fields". One stone of "striking appearance" is still standing. The middle circle of ca. 60 feet in diameter seems to have been used for the purpose of field clearing, with stones from the outer circles having been deposited there. The one solitary stone from what may have been an outer circle stands about 22 feet SW from the middle circle; it is a
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
slab, 9'6" high, 5'6" wide, and 1'6" thick. Since it's tapered toward the top, it appears to Cash as a "cloaked human figure".
There is an outer kerb (58 ft in diameter) and an inner ring, made of smaller stones. There was a bank of small stones just outside the kerb, which was part of the design; stones from the field have been thrown onto that bank.
Gallery
File:Delfour stone circle.png, Drawing by Cash, 1906
Aviemore stone circle
The cairn consists of three stone circles, or remnants thereof. The outer one, of detached megaliths, is ca. 75 ft in diameter.
[ The second circle is of graded kerbstone sets closely,][ with a diameter of ca. 42 feet, and the inner circle is ca. 26 feet.][ The cairn is mostly gone and only three or four slabs are left.][
In 1877 there were still seven stones standing in the centre; when ]Aubrey Burl
Harry Aubrey Woodruff Burl HonFSA Scot (24 September 1926 – 8 April 2020) was a British archaeologist best known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. Before retirement he was Pr ...
detailed the cairn in 2005, there were only five left, one of which has fallen. The tallest is 1.5 m high.The cairn is currently in the middle of a housing estate.
Gallery
File:Aviemore stone circle.png, 1906 drawing by Cash
File:Aviemore stone circle 1.jpg, Aviemore stone circle
File:Aviemore stone circle 2.jpg, Aviemore stone circle
Grenish stone circle
The Grenish circle is a little over 2 miles E.N.E. of the Aviemore railway station, some 350 yards east of the road, in an area of uneven moorland[ that was once covered in pine trees.][On the history of forestation in the Spey Valley, see ] A nearby lochan
''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch.
In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spellin ...
gets its name from the stones: ''Loch nan Carraigean'', or "Loch of the Standing Stones". The Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller United Kingdom, British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Base ...
's line to Carr Bridge runs nearby (now the preserved Strathspey Railway), only a few yards from the outer circle on the west side; equally close on the east side runs an old path from Aviemore to Boat of Garten
Boat of Garten ( gd, Coit a' Ghartain; originally: Garten) is a small village and post town in Badenoch and Strathspey, Highland, Scotland. In 1951, the population was less than 400; in 1971, it was almost 500; in 1981, it was almost 700, and the ...
.[
]
Gallery
File:Grenish stone circle.png, 1906 drawing by Cash
See also
*Culloden Viaduct
The Culloden Viaduct is a railway viaduct on the Highland Main Line, to the east of the city of Inverness, in the Highland council area of Scotland.
It was designed by Murdoch Paterson and opened in 1898 as part of the Inverness and Aviemore D ...
References
External links
*Highland Historic Environment Records:
MGH 4428
Delfour stone circle
MHG 3129
Aviemore stone circle
MHG 4648
Grenish stone circle
{{coord, 57.198767, -3.827386, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Archaeology of death
Bronze Age Scotland
Cairngorms
Chambered cairns in Scotland