Archaeology and Geology

On Arran, human activity can be documented in the archaeological record dating as far back as 10 000 years ago. The island offers a wealth of archaeology which is often intimately associated with the geology of the immediate landscape. Rocks have always been a source of material for building and tool making. Our understanding of the interaction of humans and landscapes in the past is incomplete, becaue the record is patchy. However our understanding of these important aspects of human history are improving rapidy, as is our understanding of the geography of the Arran (compare ancient map on left, published in 1654, with present-day maps of the island).

For example, flint is often found as spear tips or knife blades. Arran has no locally derived flint, it would have been especially brought to Arran from areas like County Antrim. However, there are outcrops of pitchstone, a glassy volcanic rock which can be used like flint due to it’s conchoidal fracturing. How rocks were obtained and used by humans offers clues as to how these ancient people lived.

Past ways of life on Arran are documented in the islands numerous ancient monuments which include: chambered tombs, stone circles, standing stones, hut circles, cists and forts. These sites document the change in way of life for Arran’s early people from the Mesolithic right through the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. The images on the left show the dramatic setting of the Kilpatrick Dun near Blackwaterfoot on Arran, and a reconstruction of what it looked like (click on images for furthere details).

The standing stones and stone circles of Machrie Moor are perhaps the finest and most striking of ancient monuments on Arran. Belonging to the Bronze Age, the stone circles were made about 4000 years ago. However, the circles were copied from older wooden circles of Neolithic Age.

Stone Circle No. 2 is the most impressive of the circles at Machrie Moor. It has three stones which are still standing, the tallest being just over 5m high, and five other broken stones marking out a circle with a diameter of just over 15m. These are all red sandstones, most likely Triassic in age. Excavation of the interior of this circle revealed two stone cists (small burial chambers, Bronze age), one containing pottery and flint, the other completely empty. The remains of the bodies are assumed to have dissolved in the acidic ground water. Inside the circle are two granite mill wheels, one of which is broken. The painting on the right also shows this stone circle, under dramatic lighting.

Also at Macrhie is Circle No. 3, which comprises only one standing sandstone along with five broken stones. Stone cists have also been excavated from this site. A Quicktime VTR panorama is also available for this site.

"Fingal’s Cauldron Seat" is another stone circle at Machrie. This one is made up of granite boulders - granite is another rock available in some abundance, and a number of the boulders used in this stone circle may well have been transported by ice, and dropped as the glacier melted.

The remarkable concentration of ancient monuments and atifacts in the Machrie Moor area is probably related to the fact the area has the most fertile land on Arran, and therefore has always been well populated.