Loanhead of Daviot

This stone circle is set on ground which slopes to the NE between two rivers; it is one of more than 15 megalithic sites in the same area. The circle has a diameter of 20.5 m (67 ft) and is dated approximately 2500 BC. The recumbent stone and its pair of flankers stand at SSW and were strangely set just inside the line of the circle, watching over eight other equally spaced uprights. The stone beside the east flanker has a vertical line of at least five cupmarks on its inner face. At one time it was thought that the recumbent was a 'double' stone, but it was later found to be just one, split by the elements. During 1934 excavations, charcoal and broken pottery sherds were found around the bases of most of the monoliths, indicating single burial cairns at each. In the middle of the low Bronze Age cairn within the circle lay a rectangular mortuary pit, which may be the oldest part of the site. A hearth was found in the ring cairn, which may indicate its use as a dwelling at some time, almost certainly when the site had lost its original meaning and was seen simply as a convenient place to live. Nearby is a circular-banked cemetery, of about the same age, consisting of an 88 square m (850 sq ft) cremation site.