Archaeology Notes

Event ID 706663

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/706663

NS89NW 18 c. 817 964.

(Area: NS 817 964). In July 1819 the bones of a whale were exposed in the carse land adjoining the E gate of the approach to Airthrey Castle. They were lying in blue silt, 4 or 5' below ground level, and 24' above high water level of the River Forth. Two pieces of stag's horn, through one of which a hole about 1" in diameter had been bored, were found close to the skeleton. These have now been lost, and no drawings or detailed descriptions published, though Turner considers that it probably was similar to the mesolithic antler axe described on NS79NW 32, and it is classified as such by the RCAHMS.

The bones are in the Royal Scottish Museum; some also appear to have gone to the Smith Institute, Stirling, though they cannot now be identified there.

W Turner 1898; W Turner 1912; RCAHMS 1963.