Archaeology Notes

Event ID 652769

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/652769

ND01SW 3 0007 1284.

(ND 0009 1287) Burial with Stone Disc found 1960 (NAT)

OS 25 " map, (1971)

During ploughing at the beginning of May 1960 a large flat stone was lifted by the plough and in a small hollow revealed,some bones and a stone disc were found.

The slab, about 3ft 9ins long by 2ft 6ins wide by 4ins thick, with a very smooth underside, was lying EW with another large stone, much narrower, lying at its E end but not touching it. There was no cist underneath the larger stone which was supported at its corners by small flat stones. The bones included part of the jaw with seven or nine teeth and parts of leg and arm bones, but it was not certain if the burial was "crouched" or not.

The stone disc was about 4ins in diameter by about 3/16ins thick, very smooth and of a blue-grey stone. The site was examined and the finds taken away by Dr Pennie, Golspie (information from J O F Mackay, Portgower).

The site was pointed out by Mr MacKay at ND 0007 1285, in a level field which had been in cultivation for many years. The stones have been replaced in the ground and the field is now under crop.

Some 50m South of this site, just outside the field wall, is a very mutilated and disturbed area, too obscure for any interpretation. (See ND01SW 5).

Visited by OS (W D J) 28 May 1960.

Site surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (R L) 22 February 1968.

The disc is a finely-ground, circular stone palette of a type known from brochs, crannogs, and Traprain Law; and was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) by Mr MacKay, Portgower.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1963; I D Pennie 1960.