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MHG50381 - Watenan

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Type and Period (2)

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Full Description

NMRS Report: (28/02/2007 15:42:14)
ND34SW 516 31325 42180

These stone rows are situated on a terrace overlooking the boggy basin that forms the watershed between Loch Watenan and Loch of Yarrows. The ground rises immediately westwards from the terrace to form a local summit, before continuing up to the higher ground occupied by the Warehouse Cairns (ND34SW 70 & 71), though the view to these is masked by the local summit. The surface of the terrace, which trends N and S, is not entirely flat, and the stone rows splay SSE down a very shallow slope. Disposed into at least five rows about 35m in length, no fewer than 25 stones are still upright and a further 95 are prostrate, the latter mainly lying in their rows and probably close to their original positions. A scatter of prostrate slabs on the west may be the remains of a sixth row. The tallest of the erect stones is about 0.4m in height, though one or two of the fallen slabs may have been taller. In addition to the stones forming the rows, there is a lone upright slab on the E, and at least one outlying slab to the S, set up on a slightly different alignment on the projected axis of the second row from the E. The presence of so many fallen stones indicates heavy disturbance, nevertheless the rows are substantially intact and relatively few stones have been removed altogether. Some stones may have been taken to build a possible marker cairn on the local summit to the W, and several stones have been cleared into a pile in the easternmost row, probably in the course of peat-cutting. More recently an intense moorland fire has also exposed areas of the subsoil, and the heather has not yet regenerated across most of the site. The prostrate stones appear to have fallen before the fire, and were probably dislodged when the peat was first stripped off the terrace. G Watson first discovered the rows following the fire; P Humphreys subsequently planned them in March 1997.
Visited by RCAHMS (SPH,GBS) 21 February 2007
Surveyed by differential GPS

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Map

Location

Grid reference	ND 31324 42179 (point)
Map sheet	ND34SW
Civil Parish	WICK
Geographical Area	CAITHNESS

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