Location– Gordon, Grampian. Near Daviot.

Description - 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 a funerary rite, small cairns were made 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.

 Alignments – The recumbent stone lies just to the west of south (196 degs.), where the full midsummer moon set.

This is a well preserved (and partly restored) example of a recumbent stone circle. These sites are fairly common in the north-east of Scotland and consist of a low ring cairn surrounded by a stone circle, with one enormous recumbent stone and two tall flanking stones as part of the circle.

As is usual, the stones of the circle are graded, with the higher ones closest to the recumbent. There are at least five cupmarks on the stone anticlockwise from the east flanker. The circle itself is 20 metres in diameter, within which lies the ring cairn, with a clear central area about four metres across in the very middle of the site.

An excavation in 1932 turned up many beaker sherds which shows that the ring cairn was in use in the Early Bronze Age. It is likely to have been built at an earlier period though, as Neolithic pottery was found in some of the stoneholes. A cist was also found containing a Middle Bronze Age incense cup. The ring cairn was also discovered to overlie traces of burning, and in the central area were found charcoal, cremated human bone and flakes of flint. An information board on the site summarises what is known of the structural sequence here.

South-east of the circle lies an enclosed cremation cemetery. This dates to the bronze age. West of the stone circle is an outlying stone.

Unfortunately, though the recumbent stone circle is near the summit of a hill and there are good views to the north, the southern horizon is blocked by a wood next to the site. This means that though the azimuths can be determined, the horizon altitudes cannot be measured directly. If the trees are one day removed, the following applies - if the horizon at the right side of the recumbent, as seen from the centre of the ring cairn, is about -1°, then the line is good for the setting southern moon at the major standstill. Alternatively, if the horizon at the right side of the right flanker is about 2°, it marks the position of the setting sun at midwinter.

The outlying stone to the west, azimuth 267.2°, altitude 2.5° gives a declination of +0.4° and is therefore close to the position of the setting sun at the equinoxes. Currently, trees also block this line.