How'd you find this?

"How did you find this?" the incredulous gentleman asked.  His puzzled query was partly accusatory, halfway between surprise and "There goes the neighborhood."  It was a protection of his home turf from ne'er do well tourists perhaps. He was out walking his spaniel--and his wife.  Or she him.  They were amiable enough.  Not necessarily welcoming.  But amiable, dog included.

For our part, I muttered something or other.  "It's on the Ordnance Survey map," knowing he wasn't much interested.  We exchanged pleasantries, and with that we parted ways.  We were touring the Borders from our accommodations at Ford Estate, and thought it would be a neat little walk.  It was.  We invested a little over an hour to visit the Duddo Stones, which would prove to be the only Neolithic/Early Bronze Age site we visited this trip.   

Four miles south of the Scottish Border, the Duddo Standing Stones were erected in about 2200 BC.  They have been a part of the landscape here for 4200 years.  How much longer remains to be seen.  They are of a fairly soft Fell sandstone and highly weathered as it is.  Fell Sandstone, incidentally, is an early Carboniferous Period deposit in the Tweed Basin.  It is said to be fluvio-deltaic.  

Today, the Duddo Stones total five.  In 1852, antiquarian Canon James Raine suggested there had also been an outer circle.  However, no trace of a second circle remains in subsequent excavations.

In the 1890s, under the leadership of Robert Carr, another two sockets were discovered, making the total seven if one includes the fifth stone which had been dragged out of the way to permit a plow on the site.  What happened to the other two stones is anybody's guess.

Carr explored a pit in the center of the circle, finding it contained charcoal and bone fragments, which seems to indicate a cremation burial.  Prior to 1903, and still on the map as such, there were four stones standing.  At some point between 1903 and 1934 the fifth standing stone was re-erected.  For in 1935, J. Hewitt Craw produced the first plan of the stones and there were five, the present number.   

The latest excavation in 2008 confirmed that there were originally 7 stones.  It further proved that the stones were at least 4,000 years old.  The human remains in the center of the circle were placed there about 300 years later, c. 1700 BC.  The 2008 excavation indicated that the earliest discernible activity at the site (potentially predating the circle), was a burning event that took place sometime around 2200–1900 BC.  As to artifacts, a single flint flake small blade of Neolithic type was discovered, as well as some pottery shards.

Known as "Duddo Four Stones", "Duddo Five Stones", "The Women", "The Singing Stones" and "The Seven Turnip Pickers", apparently, Seven Turnip Pickers may hearken back to a different age.  There is no historical account of 7 stones.  Obviously then, it memorialized the construction in the local language (Gaelic) before history got involved.

Lastly, be mindful of the walking route.  The Duddo Stones are on private ground with a permissive path by the farmer.  But, it need not always be thus.