Archaeology Notes

Event ID 666849

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/666849

NJ42NE 24 47231 27725

(NJ 4722 2771) Gallows Hill (NAT)

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1902)

Gallows Hill

Cairn [NAT] (at NJ 47231 27725)

OS (GIS) AIB, May 2007.

Location formerly entered as NJ 4722 2771.

Gallows Hill is a small, conical, artificial, mound said to have been erected as the place of execution for criminals condemned by the feudal lords - the Gordons of Lesmoir.

Name Book 1866.

Gallows Hill, a well-shaped mound of earth and stone measuring 20.0m in diameter and 1.8m high. It is slightly mutilated on its S side. The name and tradition are still known locally, but the size and regular shape suggest that it was burial cairn utilized as a gallows mound. Similar to Bell Knowe (NJ42NE 31).

Revised at 1/25000.

Visited by OS (NKB) 3 October 1967.

This grass-grown cairn lies in a stony, semi-improved pasture field on the NE flank of The Peirk, some 430m SSE of Mains of Lesmoir steading (NJ42NE 73). It measures about 19m in diameter from E to W by 18m transversely and is up to 3m in height on its N, or downhill, side. An excavation on its S side, approximately 5m in diameter and 1m in depth, and a smaller shelf on its NW side may be the result of quarrying. The cairn, which is composed of earth and stone, is being eroded currently by the burrowing of rabbits.

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, IF), 22 May 1996.