452 Mr. Tate on Yecering Bell, &c. 



less than ten tons in weight, was rolled down a distance of 

 twenty feet hy a recent flood, and was stopped in its course 

 by another large stone. 



Three of the standing stones are near to each other, and 

 hence the origin of the comparatively modern name of Three 

 Stone Burn. 



The excavations along the circumference shewed distinctly, 

 that the circle of stones was single, and that no wall or other 

 works connected them with each other ; nor is there any 

 ditch or rampier around it. The diggings within the circle 

 were through peat ; and the old natural undisturbed surface 

 was reached at the depth of 15 inches. Charred wood was 

 found on this surface in several places ; and only one other 

 relic, a flint, was discovered in the centre. This flint is but 

 a small fragment less than an inch long, and three eighth's 

 of an inch broad. The breadth however is entire ; and the 

 instrument has been carefully made ; it has two cutting 

 edges and seems a portion of a small knife. {Plate XVI. 

 Jig. 14.) This relic though small is significant, and taken in 

 connection with the structure of the circle enables us, without 

 much hesitation, to refer it to an early Celtic period. 



What purpose then did this stone circle serve ? 



All stone circles were formerly, without discrimination, 

 described as Druidical temples. The tide has set in against 

 this notion, and such circles are as indiscriminately regarded 

 by many as places of sepulture. But there is a considerable dif- 

 ference among stone circles : some are single rows, as this at 

 Three Stone Burn; others concentric rows^ as Stonehenge; 

 some enclose other circles, as Abury ; and they vary in size from 

 20 feet or less in diameter to more than 1000 feet. It may 

 be admitted, that the smaller circles are generally sepulchral; 

 several were proved to have this character in the Isle of Arran, 

 in Westmoreland, and elsewhere ; and these might properly, 

 as Sir Gardner Wilkinson proposes, be called circle-cairns. 

 Circles of a large size do not appear however to have been 

 constructed for the interment of the dead. 



By an exhaustive process, we may arrive at a reasonable 

 notion of the object of the Three Stone Burn circle. It is not 

 sepulchral ; for neither cist, nor urn, nor bones were found 

 within it ; and as five trenches w^ere cut through it in dif- 

 ferent directions, if such existed, they would certainly have 

 been discovered. It is not a fort or camp; for there is 

 neither rampier nor ditch, and its position is naturally weak 

 and defenceless. It is not a dwelling ; for there are no hut 



