Moray HER - NJ54NE0006 - MAINS OF ROTHIEMAY

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Main Details

Primary ReferenceNJ54NE0006
NameMAINS OF ROTHIEMAY
NRHE Card No.NJ54NE6
NRHE Numlink 17820
HES SM No. 344
HES LB No. NULL
Site Form Standing Structure
Site Condition Incomplete
Details Remains of a recumbent stone circle. Only four stones plus the recumbent remain out of the original 12 possible stones, some of which were removed in circa 1845. Both flankers have gone and there is now no trace of any internal ring-cairn although both Coles and Ordnance Name Book refer to a possible inner circle. The massive recumbent at the southwest, weighing nearly 20 tons, measures approximately 4.3 m x 1.3 m and 1.8 m high, and is aligned in a west-east direction. It has a high number of cup-marks on its inner face, over 100, plus cup and ring marks including 10 cups with single rings, two cups with single rings and radials, and a dumbbell with one larger cup-mark and a single ring. The top surface has 12 cup-marks, mainly distributed on the middle area. The standing stone to the east is roughly rectangular in shape, tapering to the top, measuring approximately 2 m x 1.5 m and 0.9 m thick, with eight cup-marks on the bottom half of the southeast face. One is 6 cm in diameter, which may have the weathered remains of a ring above it, seven are smaller than 5 cm, with a cluster of three cup-marks. A geophysical survey was undertaken using earth resistance and magnetic methods in 1998. At first sight the results of the survey are unrevealing. The earth resistance plot shows the expected 'white-out' in the vicinity of the southernmost stones. There are, however, significant, isolated, high resistance anomalies surrounding a high resistance horse-shoe shaped plateau. these anomalies are characteristic of stone or dry-earth structures. Also, as expected, the magnetic survey proved to be very noisy with a scatter of isolated magnetic 'highs' and 'lows' superimposed on an apparently random background. The magnetic nature of the stones of the circle was confirmed by strong positive and negative signals immediately surrounding them. The south-east stone in particular shows an extended area of magnetisation to its south, suggesting an area of extensive burning. Unfortunately this area is masked by water in the earth resistance survey. Also of interest is a broad, approximately linear feature coinciding, in part, with the horse-shoe of high resistance. The cup-marked stones were recorded in November 2020 by Scotland's Rock Art Project.
Last Update07/12/2022
Updated Byjnicholson
Compiler 
Date of Compilation 

Google Map for NJ54NE0006

National Grid Reference: NJ 5507 4873



Event Details

Event DateEvent TypeOASIS ID
1998 Geophysical Survey
2020 Field Observation

Excavations and Surveys


Artefact and Ecofact

Ecofact

Samples
Palynology
Ecofact Notes

Monument Types

Monument Type 1Monument Type 2Monument Type 3OrderProbability
STONE-CIRCLES RECUMBENTA100
CAIRNSRING B90
STONESCUP & RING C100
STONES CUP-MARKEDD100
CUP-MARKS  E100