Fig. 124.—Armlet of Brass found near Aboyne (4¼ inches in diameter).
(1) Front view, seen sideways. (2) Back view.
Three others were found in ploughing a piece of new land three miles north-west of Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, and are now in the possession of the Dowager-Marchioness of Huntly. Two of the three are similar in size and pattern of ornament, though not identical, one being slightly smaller than the other. One (Fig. [124]) measures 4¼ inches in the longer and 3¼ in the shorter diameter internally, 2¼ inches in width or height in the middle of the back, and 3 inches across the middle of the rounded extremity. Its weight is 20 ounces. The other, which is precisely similar in the pattern of its ornamentation, measures 4 inches in the longer and 3 inches in the shorter diameter internally, and weighs 14¼ ounces.[[67]] Both these examples show an excess of wear at the edge on one side, where fully half the width of the outer band is worn away. The third armlet (Fig. [125]) is broken and slightly twisted. It is much plainer, and wants the bold projecting parts of the ornament which are so conspicuous on the others.
Fig. 125.—Armlet found near Aboyne. Back and side view.
Fig. 126.—Bronze Armlet in the National Museum. Back and front views
(4½ inches in diameter).
An armlet of the same class, preserved in the National Museum (Fig. [126]), has both its ends considerably cut away, so as to widen the opening. It measures 4½ inches in greatest diameter, and 3¼ inches in greatest width across the circular extremity. The locality in which it was found is unknown, although there is some probability that it may be one of two said to have been found in the neighbourhood of Bunrannoch, Perthshire. In the pattern and arrangement of its ornamentation it has a strong resemblance to the one next to be described. In all the previous cases these remarkable objects have been found unassociated with other articles, but in the case which follows there was an association which is suggestive of the period of the type.
In 1876, Mr. Lindsay, the tenant of the farm of Stanhope, in Peeblesshire, in searching for a rabbit underneath a large flat stone on the hillside, found the following articles among smaller stones underneath the larger one:—(1) a bronze armlet of the special character of those that have been described; (2) two flat circular buckle-like articles of bronze; and (3) a well made saucepan of bronze with a long side handle. The place where they were discovered is a small hollow close to the brow of a crag some 400 feet high, and lying below the summit of the hill, so that it cannot be seen unless by coming close to the brow of the hill overlooking it.
