Discovering Lost Circles
On the fringes of earth mysteries, the whimsical claims of dowsers often leave much to be desired in terms of accuracy and objectivity. Yet approached without a pre-set agenda, dowsing is a valuable tool to making sense of ancient sites.
Peter Donaldson's work shows what can - and should - be the standard (from Northern Earth 82)
Some years ago, I visited the well-known stone circle of Loanhead near Daviot in Aberdeenshire. A young man1 was admiring the stones and we started talking. He told me that he was writing a book on stone circles and was interested in the relationship that many Aberdeenshire circles seemed to have with a local hill called Dunideer. He also talked a little of ley lines and, in reply to my sceptical questions, informed me that they could be detected by dowsing. This intrigued me because I had been an active dowser of water, pipes, electricity cables etc. for some years. I returned to Loanhead with my dowsing rod some time later and although ley lines, mystical energy fields, etc., seemed to elude me, the evidence of underground structures did not.
I produced my first plot of a largely-defunct stone circle (New Craig) in 1997 and having written about my findings, I was encouraged by the number of inquiries that I received from people wanting to see what I had found. My first attempt was a little crude for several reasons. I use a dowsing rod in the same way as one would a metal detector. Having found a 'line', I go back and forth over the line putting in marker flags as I go. My initial plot was drawn by hand and has the imperfections associated with a non-artist trying to join up the flag positions! I have moved on to use a CAD (Computer Aided Design) programme with a marked improvement in quality.
Also, I have learned the art of discriminative dowsing or the ability to identify different materials. This produces a much more interesting plot. It also produced a pile of animal bones from our garden as a result of trying out my new found skills and digging where the rod said I would find bone!
I have also learned to recognise snags with dowsing ancient sites. I took part in a dowsing 'teach-in' at the site of Broomend of Crichie near Inverurie. During a pre-visit, I was asked to dowse the circle and I came up with five areas of bone, etc. This caused considerable interest because a) I was very close to the positions of five cists shown in an old book (which I had not seen) and b), the bones had been removed fifty years previously. I had proved what I was beginning to suspect in that any object left for some time, will leave a shadow or trace behind. Therefore, I have to always add the rider to my work that what is plotted is not necessarily still there.
To anyone interested in trying this non-destructive form of archaeology, I would give this advice. Try to do the plot twice with a reasonable gap between visits. This adds to the credibility to the work because one may have a vague idea as to where lines / objects were, but it is unlikely that you can come up with identical plots from memory! To give an idea as to the results of a survey, the following is my most recent effort.
Stonehead Insch NJ601 286 
One of the joys of the north east of Scotland is the fact that the stone circles are mostly of the recumbent variety. This means that there is a large supine stone in the SW quadrant, with two standing stones, or flankers, at each end of it. I do not use the word 'large' lightly! These altar-like stones can weigh up to fifty tons and are not easily moved. The net result is that even where 18th and 19th century farmers (and religious zealots) have destroyed the circle, the recumbent is often left behind to act as a marker for those of us trying to trace our past.
Stonehead (or Whitebrow) is just such a place. There is a large recumbent, its two flankers and a couple of rocks breaking the surface alongside the NW flanker. Apart from the fact that the ground to the NE is built up, there is no indication that a circle ever existed. It has even been speculated as to whether ancient man actually completed the circle as there are no records or memories of any circles of stones at the site.
It is on a lovely site with views to nearby Dunideer and Tap-O-Noth. It is high above a valley and has a wonderful atmosphere. Dowsing produced the following:
The outer ring is an oval and the dowsing signal is very weak. As can be seen from the plot, there appear to have been 8 stones on this line but they (and the ring cairn) only dowse as a 'shadow'. If I dowse for rock - the signal disappears. This is only a feeling - but I think that this part of the circle was destroyed a long time ago. Rough size is 52 feet by 62 feet.
The next circle is much easier to detect and dowses as rock. There were 7 stones on the ringcairn and it is much more circular. Diameter is approx. 46 feet. Both of these rings have broad ringcairns - about 3-4 feet in width.
The inner cairn is about 16 feet across but is not central to either of the other rings - which is strange. This appears to have 3 ears sticking out and has an area of bone and charcoal slightly off centre. It has a much thinner ring - barely 1 foot across.
This survey took about 4 hours of dowsing and plotting over two weekends and produces something which, hopefully, can fill another small gap in our knowledge. My confidence has received a recent boost with the news that the inner ring cairn and bone and charcoal that I dowsed on a survey at Tomnaverie, Aberdeenshire, appears to have been confirmed by an initial excavation. The team from Reading University, under Richard Bradley, is back next spring and I look forward to the rest of their dig.
I hope that readers find this interesting and that it fires a few of you to have a go! There are enough new sites for an army of dowsers to pore over and people will find that even the archaeological world will welcome findings such as contained in this short report. All you need is patience and the ability to dowse. Many people have this ability, although they do not know it!
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