The Nine Stanes Circle is located around 1000 feet up on the South-east facing hillside between the Hazelly Burn and the Kingside Burn in the Lammermuir Hills to the North-west of the Whiteadder Reservoir, some distance South of Dunbar. Click here for a location map provided by StreetMap.
Nine Stanes Circle, Looking West
The Nine Stanes is a possible stone circle which may be a natural or part-natural/part-modern formation, but which has nonetheless taken on the mantle of a genuine circle in local lore. It was believed, for example, that treasure of some kind was buried within or beneath the circle, and the unusually chaotic arrangement of the stones is sometimes explained away as the result of attempts to find that treasure.
Looking North-west
There appears to be little significance in the alignment of the stones, not least since the layout is far from symmetrical, although this could be the result of damage from amateur excavations in search of the alleged buried treasure. Equally, most of the stones are not in an upright position.
Looking North-east
The shape of the "circle" is actually ovoid, around 22 feet in diameter, and most of the stones are erratically shaped and placed, with some of them appearing to be small natural rocks.
Stone A
Stone B
Stone C
Stone D
Stone E
Stone F
Stone G
Stone H
These stones are easiest to reach from the single-track road which follows the strath of the Whiteadder Water, just South of Johnscleugh.