Archaeology Notes

Event ID 678588

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/678588

NN80NW 5 8319 0679.

(NN 8319 0679) The Roundel (NAT) Cairn (NR).

OS 6" map, (1958)

A round cairn, 100 yards in circumference and 5 - 6ft high, with small boulders visible but no sign of a central cist or peristalith of curbstones (Crawford 1949).

In 1822 when clearing the ground near it for ploughing a large stone was found 18ins below the surface covering burnt bones 'undoubtedly human'; on the underside of the stone was lettering (variously interpreted but Macalister gives "QATTIDONA" (Macalister 1945)). The stone was apparently set up beside the Roundel for some time, during which the original letters were re-cut by a herdsman and others were evidently added (Rhys 1898). Later it was moved to the grounds of the Smith Institute, Stirling, where it was seen by Crawford. The reading is dubious and Crawford considered the whole thing probably a forgery, but this is unlikely in view of the sensation which its discovery aroused (as recounted by "A Lover of Antiquity"). Macalister classes it as possibly 5th - 6th century.

J Rhys 1898; R A S Macalister 1946; O G S Crawford 1949.

This cairn, known locally as the Roundel, is oval in plan, and generally as described by Crawford. The stone is still at the Smith Institute; Crawford's inference that it is a forgery is unacceptable.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (R D) 9 May 1967.