Qualla: Tomnaverie Stone Circle

Tomnaverie Stone Circle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John M, CC BY-SA 2.0. Thirteen granite stones stand on a low hilltop near Tarland in Aberdeenshire, arranged in a circle seventeen metres across. The largest -- a 6.5-ton block of quartz-veined granite -- lies on its side, oriented toward the southwest, pointing across the Howe of Cromar toward the distant peak of Lochnagar. This is the recumbent stone, and everything about Tomnaverie was designed around it. Built around 2500 BC, the circle belongs to a tradition unique to northeast Scotland: the recumbent stone circle, a monument type found in more than seventy locations across Aberdeenshire and nowhere else in the world with quite the same concentration.

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Image: John M | CC BY-SA 2.0

Tomnaverie Stone Circle: The Recumbent Tradition

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Laure-Hélène Maire, CC BY-SA 4.0. In a recumbent stone circle, the largest stone is always placed on its side, typically along the southern or southwestern perimeter. Flanker stones -- the tallest uprights in the circle -- stand on either side of the recumbent. The remaining stones decrease in height as they curv...

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Image: Laure-Hélène Maire | CC BY-SA 4.0

Tomnaverie Stone Circle: Rescued from the Quarry

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 1930, Tomnaverie was in ruins. A neighbouring quarry had eaten to within a metre of the standing stones. Only four uprights remained in position. The quarry workers had possibly tipped the recumbent onto its face to prevent it falling into the pit, and both flanker stones had ...

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Image: Andrew Wood | CC BY-SA 2.0

Tomnaverie Stone Circle: What the Dig Revealed

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0. A major excavation in 1999 and 2000, led by Richard Bradley, changed not only Tomnaverie but the understanding of recumbent stone circles across Scotland. The hilltop had first been used for funeral pyres, creating a mound of burnt residues and cremated human bone. This mound was...

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Image: Otter | CC BY-SA 3.0

Tomnaverie Stone Circle: Stones Returned to Their Sockets

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0. The excavation found the original sockets of four missing stones, and two of the uprights themselves -- one buried beside its socket, another lying unbroken in the quarry despite having fallen before 1870. These were lifted by crane and lowered back into their sockets. The flanke...

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Image: Andrew Wood | CC BY-SA 2.0