1 907-1908.] Clava :" The Stonehenge of Scotland." 59 



Circle No. 7, the last of the Clava group, stands by itself in 

 a field a few yards from the bounding stone dyke. The inner 

 and intermediate rings had originally been complete, but the 

 latter is now considerably broken on one side by excavations 

 for gravel. Of the outer ring there is only one pillar-stone, a 

 huge irregular slab of red sandstone, 12 J feet high, and 9 

 feet broad at the widest part. Whether there were ever any 

 more stones placed in the outer ring cannot now be known, as 

 the field is ploughed all round, and no traces of any more exist. 

 This circle has all the appearance of never having been finished. 

 The space between the intermediate and inner rings is filled up 

 with small stones to the level of the top of the latter, and it 

 looks as if it had been got just ready for the erection of the 

 central chamber (in this case 21 feet in diameter) when 

 operations were suspended, and never resumed. 



Of the fourteen circles between the Nairn valley and the 

 Ness, the most perfect — and the only one of the lot which I 

 have seen — is the one known as the " Druid Temple," situated 

 on an eminence about two miles south of Inverness, near the 

 old Edinburgh Eoad, which is also Wade's Eoad. This circle 

 has either not been finished or the materials of it have been 

 knocked about a great deal, as many of the stones are lying 

 about out of position. In the outer ring, six out of ten stones 

 are still standing. Some of the standing ones are immense 

 blocks, one in particular at the south, and nearly opposite the 

 entrance passage, being quite a giant. It is of red sandstone 

 conglomerate, stands about nine feet in height, and measures 

 about 4 1 by 4 feet in cross section. About three-fourths of 

 the stones of the intermediate ring are in position, but only 

 two or three slabs of the inner ring are left. An irregular 

 double row of stones marks where the entrance passage was, or 

 perhaps was to be. There are no evidences of central chamber 

 or cairn ever having been formed. Some think that a chambered 

 cairn was part of the original plan for every one of these 

 mysterious erections, but of course that is one of the points 

 regarding them where there can now be nothing but conjecture. 

 In one case the inner ring is 32 feet in diameter, and that 

 seems rather too wide a space to arch over in the manner 

 used in the two-chambered cairns at Clava. But as previously 

 mentioned, the builders of No. 7 seem to have contemplated 



