Midmar Kirk Recumbent Stone Circle

All pictures copyright © 2000 Martin McCarthy

The circle from the graveyard to the south. Large Image (140kb 1224x655) Looking from the east. Large Image (176kb 1208x813) Looking from the southeast. Large Image (114kb 1045x777) A closer view of the recumbent and flankers from the south. The tapered recumbent has been chocked up at the western end so that the top of the stone is horizontal. Large Image (147kb 1083x694) The recumbent and flankers from the north. Large Image (179kb 1100x677) A full view of the circle from the north. Large Image (76kb 1164x413) A view from the west. Large Image (117kb 1102x634)

Burl politely says that this circle has been "interfered with". That is, landscaped and probably rearranged. Nevertheless it is an impressive site with its 20 ton recumbent stone, 15 feet in length and four feet wide. The flankers, looking like huge canine teeth, stand over eight feet tall. This is not their natural shape - they were dressed to look like they do. Five other stones stand around a fifty-foot circle, but these do not seem to be in their original positions. Recumbent stone circles are usually graded in height from the flankers away to the north east. This one does not conform to this pattern; they were probably moved when the circle was landscaped in 1914. Recumbent circles commonly face the point of the major lunar standstill. That would be obscured by the hills and so this circle faces the minor lunar standstill.