Archaeology Notes

Event ID 689421

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/689421

NO44SW 1 4076 4491.

(NO 4076 4491) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map, (1959)

A flat-topped round cairn, 67-70' in diameter at base, and 5-6' high, covered with heather and blaeberries. A number of large stones protrude from its flanks, and several pits have been dug into it round the top, but apparently not deep enough to disturb a primary burial. The cairn is surrounded eccentrically by an earth and stone bank, 9-10' thick, with a gap, 9' wide, in the cetnre of its E side, but it is not possible to say if it is original or secondary. The fact the bank is eccentric to the cairn, coupled with its stony nature, seems to rule out its interpretation as a bell-cairn, the bank probably being a modern addition similar to the feal-dyke at Cairnpapple or Andrew's Knowe, Roxburghshire. It may even have been erected to isolate and protect the cairn when the open caste shale-pits roundabout were being worked.

NSA (1845) suggest it may be a Roman signal-station; Christison (1900) considers it may be a motte.

NSA 1845; D Christison 1900; Information from RCAHMS TS 8 August 1956.

(Previously scheduled as Round Cairn, Arniefoul). Scheduled as Arniefoul, cairn.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 12 December 2001.