Stone Circles at Raedykes, near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire

Abstract

Raedykes is well known for its Roman Camp, however, there are also four circles or ring-cairns on the site. The four circles are situated within a short distance of each other, so that a line joining their centres would form a slight curve little more than a hundred yards in length. They are nearly equal in size, and each consists of a ring-shaped cairn with a hollow centre, the interior depression and the exterior circumference being bounded by a setting of earthfast stones, set upright to support the smaller loose stones of which the cairns are composed. Only two of these ring-cairns, the most northerly and the most southerly, are surrounded by standing stones, and each is furnished with a circle of upright stones placed at a distance of a few feet beyond the outer circumference of the cairn. The recumbent\r\nstone, so important a feature in the Aberdeenshire type of circle, is entirely absent.