1792« account of antiquities in Scotland. i^r 



rity in the distance betweea the difterent stones wag 

 not much regarded. 



There are remains of temples of this kind in se- 

 veral parts of Scotland ; though so manj of them 

 have been demoliflied in the cultivated parts of it, 

 that persons who reside there, have had no oppar- 

 tunitj of seeing them. The very temple that gave 

 rise to these observations is now (January 1792) 

 entirely destroyed, and the place where it stood turn- 

 ed up by the plough. They abound in the hilly 

 parts of Aberdeen£hire, and along the Grampian 

 mountains. 



Stonehenge in Wiltfhire is, without doubt, a mo- 

 nument referable to this general clafs, although 

 differing from the above in many particulars. 



There are some vestiges of these four kinds of 

 antiquities in South Britain ; but it is doubtful if 

 there are any of a similar nature with those of, the 

 other two clafses that remain to be taken notice of. 

 i fhall, therefore, in some future number of thi^j 

 work, be a little more particular with regard to 

 them*. 



* Since the above was written, I have accidentally learnt that Dr 

 Thoikelin, profefsor of antiquities at Coiienhagen, who saw many ofthe;C 

 circular structures in Scotland, is of opinion that they were not druidi'Cil 

 temples, as tradition has it; he thinks they were rather erected as a 

 kind of civil courts for the distribution of justice, or for deliberating on 

 national aft'airs. He was led to think this, from having observed that 

 circular structures of this kind abound in Norway, where the religii^ 

 of the druids never did prevail. It is obvious that they nr.ight have beet* 

 C(]ually well fitted for civil, as for religious purposes. 



