Baliscate standing stones, Isle of Mull, Scotland 2017 In moorland close to Baliscate, three standin

Baliscate standing stones, Isle of Mull, Scotland 2017 In moorland close to Baliscate, three standing stones of basalt have been erected in an approximately straight line running North and South. The northern stone, 1.7m in height, is a straight-sided monolith with a flattish top. The second stone is prone, half-embedded in peat, and is 2.8m long. The tallest of the stones stands within a ruined turf-and-stone bank and measures 2.6m in height, it is an irregular slab, which expands above the base before narrowing to a pointed top. Before excavation the site comprised two standing stones with a recumbent or fallen stone positioned at right-angles in-between them. Excavation revealed that the original position of the recumbent stone was approximately equidistant between the two upright standing stones.  At some point during prehistory it either collapsed or was deliberately overthrown (as had happened nearby at Ardnacross, a double stone row), and came to rest in the position it occupies today. The substantial socket stones were scattered and the socket (not fully excavated) filled up with darker earth and peat. In addition to this the stump of a fourth, smaller stone was uncovered to the north of the row, which appears to have been broken, perhaps deliberately, at some point in the more recent past, and until its discovery was entirely covered by the peat. Close to the base of this stone, cut into the prehistoric ground surface, a very small cremation burial was uncovered beneath a large lump of charcoal.The ground surface underneath the peat consisted of a layer of waterlogged clay silt that contained numerous small degraded stones, along with frequent specks and patches of charcoal and reddish clay. Areas of this surface had either been burnt or burning had occurred nearby, although it was unclear if this practice was deliberate or incidental. This layer also contained one piece of crudely worked flint and several pieces of degraded quartz, neither of which are local in origin. The site can now confidently be identified as a four-stone row, and it is hoped that radiocarbon dates can be obtained from the cremated bone. -- source link

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