A Shufti at Sheildon by Peter Donaldson

A Shufti at Sheildon by Peter Donaldson

Sheildon stone circle, Aberdeenshire

Sheildon (Bourtie parish, Aberdeenshire – click here for map) was chosen as the venue for the 2004 A.G.M.

of FOGs and I was invited to say a few words about it. This gave me a minor problem – in that I had never

visited the site! Most of my surveys are inspired by map references to ‘Standing Stones’ or ‘Remains of Stone

Circle’ etc. However, there is nothing on the OS Pathfinder map to attract one to Sheildon (or Sheldon) other

than the label – ‘Cairn, remains of’. Any of you who have visited it will know that most of the stones are invisible

from the road. It came as a real knockout to get to the site and find that it was superior to many better regarded

‘ruins’ that I had previously visited.

Panoramic photo of Sheildon stone circle - click here for full size image (200k)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my work, I simply use a dowsing rod as one would a metal detector, to

find what is, or has been, on and below the surface. As a picture begins to emerge, I then refine it by analysing the

materials to find out if there is charcoal, pottery, bone etc.

I try not to start with any pre-conceived ideas – although the dowsing response is usually unimpressed with what

I am thinking! I was told that Sheildon was an oval – and I did have that in mind when I started.

The layout of the main visible stones - are shown above. The oval, assumable, started on one side at A, and

finished at B – with C being an outlier. However, the dowsing rod was having none of that and produced a plot

for the outer cairn as follows.

Following my usual routine, I then dowsed between the inner and outer boundary of the cairn to see if the

shadows of any previous stones were detectable. Net result was:-

The large response in the SSW quadrant could have been the old recumbent. Sometimes, I can put a bit of

shape to a large signal – but this is difficult dowsing territory and I was concerned not to end up with a sprained

ankle on all the rocky debris. Never-the-less, the plots looked good when I got them onto the computer, and a

superimposed circle looks like this.

The next area for survey was the centre of the circle, and here I had a bit of a surprise. I expected the usual

inner ring – but did not expect it to be so offset from the centre.

However, a possible reason became apparent when I did my usual traverse round the perimeter to see if I

could find any avenues.

There is an avenue pointing straight at the cremation area. It is ‘blocked’ by the outlier and continues for about

another 100 feet into the turnip field – where it abruptly stops in a welter of bone signals. I will try and plot this

once the neeps have gone. It is interesting that the stone is not central to the avenue – and I did double check.

But on the other hand, neither is the pot and bone in the stone circle. I wonder whether this alignment is related?

The stone, which I will now call the eastern outlier, is worth a mention as it is so large. Because we can dowse

for different materials by concentrating on a sample, I thought that I would try the same thing with this outlier. I

put my arms round it, and my hands on it - to feel the mass and consistency of it. I then dowsed the outer ring

adjacent to the stone to see if it had come from there. There was no response. I then walked the rest of the

circle - with no response until I arrived by my dowsed mass of rock in the SSW quadrant. There I obtained a

very strong dowsing signal. Which brings me to a theory that will annoy some – but just indulge me! The eastern

outlier is 8.5 feet high and about 5 feet x 3 feet in cross section. If it goes down 3 or 4 feet into the ground, it

would weigh upwards of 17 imperial tons. This is very big for a standing stone – and I think that it could be part

of the old recumbent stuck up on its end. I am not saying that ‘modern’ man necessarily did this. Quite a lot of

circles were ‘bastardised’ by later generations of users. However, whether it is the recumbent or not, it is a

seriously large rock and required much expertise to move and erect it.

This is the view from the circle.

And this is the view from the side. The right hand side is pretty flat. If you

remember that this towers over me (and I’m nearly 6 ft high) you can get an idea

of its mass. Laid on its side, it would make a more than adequate recumbent.

That finishes my brief review of Sheildon. Best regards to everyone and I hope this gives food for thought.

Peter Donaldson – October 2004

donaldson.meikle@virgin.net

contact Friends Of Grampian Stones by e-mail