Location
Sunhoney Farm, Echt. From Echt follow the B9119 west for about 1 1/2 miles the farm road is to the right (north) of the road.
Echt, Aberdeenshire
OS Map Reference
NJ 715 056
Description
The monument is very well preserved recumbent stone circle, 25m - 26.7 in diameter, lying in an area bounded by a 19th-century plantation wall. The circle comprises 11 standing stones and the recumbent. The recumbent and one of the uprights bear cupmarks. Within the circle is a raised platform measuring some 7m across, probably the remains of a ring cairn. The circle is on a hilltop surrounded by trees above Sunhoney farm.
The unusualy large, 5.3 m long grey granite recumbent stone has fallen inwards. On its (currently) upper surface, originally the stone's outer face are over thirty cup marks (some sources give 7 as now visible) . Its colour contrasts stongly with the red rock (granite and gneiss) of the other stones in the circle. The tall stones flanking the recumbent stone are about six and a half and seven and a half feet tall.
Related Information
The circle is on private land but there is a place to park and a sign pointing the way along which has been erected gates and a fence to protect crops.
The inner cairn can be seen as a platform 7 m in diameter and 0.3 m high. Evidence of a funeral type pyre and 8 deposits of burnt bones were found in the central area, when it was excavated in 1865.
Era
Neolithic era
Information Source
RCAHMS http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/
Aberdeenshire Sites and Monuments Record and http://www.ancient-scotland.co.uk/
Categories
Iconography
- cup and ring marks
Photographer
- Michael Watt
Unavailable Data
- Date
- Related Artefacts
- Creator
- External Links
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