Archaeology Notes
Event ID 679388
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/679388
NN91NW 17 9262 1621
For adjacent henge (also excavated), see NN91NW 18.
At NN 9262 1621, on level ground at the junction of the River Earn and the Machany Water, there is a tree-covered cairn measuring 44.0m in diameter and 4.0m in height, though a stone dyke encroaches on its N side. There are traces of a ditch round the NW side. An excavation in the top shows the cairn to be composed mainly of large, waterworn stones with an admixture of earth. On the edge of the excavation there are two large stone slabs, on one of which, measuring 1.6m by 1.1m by 0.3m, are some thirty cup marks, the majority very small, but some averaging 2ins in diameter and 1/2ins deep.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (W D J) 30 May 1967.
(NN 9262 1621) Cairn (NR) Cup marked Stone (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)
This round barrow was excavated by G Barclay in 1978-9 in advance of development. It covered a well-preserved old land surface corrugated by spaded ridges.
A roughly circular timber enclosure 7.5m in diameter had been erected on the old land surface. It contained a flint arrowhead, but no trace of burials; this absence may be illusory in view of the high acidity of the soil. A number of light wooden fences was built radiating from the enclosure forming bays into which was dumped material dug from the surrounding quarry ditch. The central enclosure was filled with boulders. The pattern of construction established by the fences and the wall of the central enclosure was maintained to the top of the mound. The barrow was capped by a layer of turf and ultimately a layer of stones, giving it the appearance of a cairn. Two food vessels, a number of cremation deposits, and two probable inhumations had been inserted in the mound.
Radiocarbon dates suggest the mound was built in the early 2nd millenium BC.
G Barclay 1978.
CUCAP photographs of 29 July 1979 show barrow under excavation.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
