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Excavation of a Stone Circle at Croft Moraig, Perthshire, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2014

Stuart Piggott  and
D. D. A. Simpson
Stuart Piggott
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
D. D. A. Simpson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Leicester
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Extract

The concentration of prehistoric monuments, broadly of the later third and early second millennium B.C., in the upper Tay valley, has been noted by more than one archaeologist in recent years (Stewart, 1958–9; Coles, J. M. and Simpson, 1965). The multiple stone circle to be described lies no more than 2 miles (3·2 km) from the north-eastern end of Loch Tay at Kenmore, and 4 miles (6·2 km) west of Aberfeldy, at Nat. Grid Ref. NN/797472 (fig. 1). It stands some 400 feet (122 m) above sea level, near and to the south of the main Aberfeldy–Kenmore road near the farm of Croft Moraig or Morag, and has long been known as a prehistoric monument: ‘Yon's the Druid Stones!’ shouted the coach drivers to their passengers sixty years ago, and only ‘the begoggled motorist’ of the day was thought likely to miss it (Coles, F.R., 1909–10, 139). Probably the earliest record of the site is that made by Robert Burns on his Highland journey in 1787 (quoted in Gillies, 1938, 14):

‘Druid's Temple, three circles of stones. The outermost sunk, the second has thirteen stones remaining; the innermost eight, two large detached ones like a gate to the south-east—say prayers in it’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , July 1971 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1971

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References

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