Machrie Moor Stone Circles

Six stone circles are visible on the moor immediately east of the derelict Moss Farm. Some circles are formed of granite boulders, while others are built of tall red sandstone pillars. A radiocarbon date of 2030 ± 180 BCE has been found for the timber circle at Machrie Moor 1. Several hut circles can also be seen as low rings of turf-covered stone. At the summer solstice the notch is intersected by the sun at sunrise, and this may explain why the circles were sited in this location. Five other monuments in the area were numbered 6 to 10, and when subsequently a further stone circle was discovered almost completely submerged in peat in 1978, it was numbered Machrie Moor 11.