Jock's Cairn, Smallburn

NJ52SW 5 5192 2434

(NJ 519 244: Group of 47) Tumuli (NR).

(NJ 5193 2433) Jock's Cairn (NR).

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 1st ed., (1866-70)

Traditionally the burial cairns of the slain at the Battle of Tillyangus (Tillieangus: NJ52SW 6), AD 1571. Jock's Cairn appears to have been larger than the other cairns but nearly all the stones have been taken for building purposes. There is no tradition concerning it.

Name Book 1866.

At NJ 5192 2434, a turf covered mound, c.5.0m diameter, c.0.4m high, composed mainly of stone, now severely robbed and spread is probably Jock's Cairn, although no local confirmation could be obtained. Between NJ 5189 2442 and NJ 5188 2456, the remains of an old field bank have undoubtedly been mistaken for cairns. Of the others there is no trace, nor is there any evidence of a field system.

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RL) 13 September 1967.

(Classification amended to cairns and quarry). Jock's Cairn is a small, grass-grown cairn situated on the crest of a N-facing scarp at the NW corner of a field of improved pasture. It measures 8m in diameter from N to S by 6.3m transversely and 0.4m in height, and the centre has been disturbed.

An irregular, shallow, grass-grown hollow about 10m to the NE of the cairn is probably a quarry excavated to provide raw material for the construction of the adjacent field-wall.

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW, PC), 9 September 1998.