Excavation of an Iron Age timber structure beside the Candle Stane recumbent stone circle, Aberdeenshire

Abstract

Reports excavations undertaken in 1996/1997 by Edinburgh University Centre for Field Archaeology (CFA). The area had suffered extensive damage from quarrying prior to its recognition as an archaeological site and therefore less than one half of the relevant area remained. The structure was defined by a ring-groove that would have been c 15.5m in diameter; it enclosed three near-concentric rings of post-holes. Charcoal from these features was radiocarbon dated to the first millennium BC. The entranceway to the structure was massively built and, had the structure been roofed, could have formed a porch. Internal features included a large stone-filled pit and a suite of stake-holes located towards the centre of the structure. No artefacts were recovered.