Archaeology Notes

Event ID 689508

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/689508

NO44SE 9 4715 4158

For other nearby cairns, see NO44SE 8, NO44SE 22, NO44SE 27.

(NO 4715 4158) Hatton Cairn (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6" map, Forfarshire, 2nd ed., (1926)

Hatton Cairn is one of nine cairns all situated within a few hundred yards of each other. Some have been removed for building purposes, and when being cleared away, cists containing bones and urns were found.

It measures 30' in diameter to the inner circle of large stones set on edge. Within the circle were discovered 5 or more cists (exact number not recorded). These cists averaged c. 3' x 1'6", except for a central cist which was 4'2" x 2'.

The first cist was discovered in 1876, and was the only one in which bones were found. The central cist contained only a scraper-shaped knife of agate. In a third cist were fragments of an urn. In 1877, a few more cists were uncovered; one contained an urn.

Material from Hatton Cairn which was purchased for the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) from the Sturrock Collection in 1889 consisted of two food vessels (Accession nos: EE 63 & 64) and two scrapers and seven fragments of agate (AB 176 - 184).

J Sturrock 1879; J Anderson 1886; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1886; NMAS 1892.

The remains of this cairn are defined by a stony bank c. 2.3m broad and 0.5m high, measuring 21.0m overall. Within this bank are stony mounds, undoubtedly spoil heaps from earlier excavations. It is situated within a cut-down wood on a very gradual slope just SW of the crest of the hill.

The only other cairns noted in the area were the two described on NO44SE 8 and NO44SE 22.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 6 September 1967.