Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

So it seems! Aberdeenshire looking particularly fine Drew.

Around Laurencekirk is really excellent, these hills between that town and the North Sea are a treasure of cairns, standing stones and long forgotten about circles.

Forgotten no longer! Excellent effort as ever, some of those little stones in the nettles must have been a right job to find.

Team effort m8!!!

[quote="bladup"]Stone circles have nothing left in them
[thats why archeologists don't like them]
and when they do find stuff it's from a different age [romans liked leaving coins] to when the circle was built,

A recent example of archaeologists from Reading Uni spending 12 days in Scotland excavating a stone circle that has evidence of previous use prior to the erection of the stones and also producing new finds over and above those found from the previous dig .

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/171/croft_moraig.html

Croft moraig isn't a typical stone circle in any way at all, it may even be a very flash cairn, it's got a horseshoe within a circle, i thought it was a very strange place, i was a bit disappointed by the place, but killin stone circle more than made up for that.

The monument at Croft Moraig isn't a typical stone circle but the earlier monument prior to the erection of the horseshoe was and still is a stone circle .It still attracts the attention of archaeologists who manage to discover pre Roman "stuff" despite the large amounts previously discovered including evidence of activity at the site pre -erection of the monoliths .

It seems like it was built on a sort of platform cairn, did they find anything about this, as in newer, older or contemporary with the circle, archaeologists seem more interested in that age than ever, it's about time, the history of that place reminds me of the sanctuarys history, another "stone circle" that isn't, the circle was built to mark the spot of an earlier mortuary enclosure / hut, i've always felt croft moraigs history is almost the same, a very unusual stone circle, so when they dig at places like this [ unusual stone circles ] you will get lopsided facts, and they will try putting "facts" from unusual stone circles onto the more average ones, go dig at killin and i bet you'll get a different story at that place, even though it's just down the road, but they'll no doubt put what they find out at croft moraig on all the circles for miles around, when the place is probably unique.

The site is on a natural glacial terrace with modifications at the east and west . No cairn . The stone circle is just that a stone circle . The excavation provides facts which are interpreted . I don't know what a lopsided fact is . The Sanctuary is much earlier , it had the early timber circles which are absent at Croft Moraig although it did have a timber monument it was not a timber circle , not plural and is now understood to have been later in the sequence .The Sanctuary had two concentric stone rings with a an Avenue ,there is a similarity there in that there are two stones at CM that could be seen as being “portal stones “ but could also be seen as being another example of a Perthshire pair (a fairly common monument type in the area ) . I don't know what a lopsided fact is , you dig and get results and interpret accordingly regardless of expectations . Kinnel will have a different story but we won't know until it is investigated .Nearby Lundin was also built on a glacial mound but that was also a different story . Whatever “they'll no doubt put what they find out at croft moraig on all the circles for miles around “ means , it is undoubtedly wrong .