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Field Visit
Date 17 August 1952
Event ID 1109329
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1109329
Cairn, 'Fairy Knowe', Hill of Airthrey.
OIn a shoulder of the Hill of Airthrey, a quarter of a mile SE of Sunnylaw farmhouse and at a height of 480 ft OD, there is a round cairn, known as the 'Fairy Knowe'; it was excavated in 1868, when a trench 12' wide was driven through the centre (1). Before excavation the cairn is said to have measured 78' in diameter and 21' in height, but it now measures about 60' in diameter at the base and only 7'6" in height. The top is flat and 18' in diameter.
The excavation revealed a cist in the centre of the cairn, laid on the original surface of the ground, and measuring 2'6" in length, 1'6" in breadth and 3' in depth. Its walls were formed partly of upright slabs and partly of small stones laid horizontally, while the floor and the roof each consisted of a single slab. Within it there was a deposit, 6" in depth, of black earth, charcoal and fragments of human bone. The cist was covered by a heap of large stones, 8' in diameter and 13' high, and this in turn was covered with earth, in which there were charcoal, blackened stones, fragments of human and animal bones and unctuous black earth. Among these remains were found six flint arrowheads, a fragment of what was thought to be a stone spearhead, and a piece of pine which, it was suggested, may have formed part of a spear-shaft.
In addition to the burial in the cist, the excavators found a Beaker (2), now lost, at a depth of 2' from the top of the cairn. Fragments of another vessel, of unspecified type, were also recovered.
RCAHMS 1963, visited 17 August 1952.
(1) PSAS, vii (1866-8), 519 ff.
(2) PSAS, xxxviii (1903-4), 338 and 394, No. 105
