Desk Based Assessment
Date 9 April 1979
Event ID 707842
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/707842
NS94SE 15 9588 4052.
(NS 9588 4052) Cairn (NR) (Remains of)
OS 25" map (1942)
A little S of the cairn on hill 1049 (NS94SE 13) are what appear to be the remains of a small circular fort, 120ft in diameter over all. This is probably the site of the "Hero's Cairn", a large tumulus in which was found a large urn, surrounded by five smaller ones, all in a stone cist (G V Irving and A Murray 1864). It is probably also the "Cairn (Site of) marked on OS 25" plan.
(D Christison 1890)
The remains of what has been a large cairn, sometimes known as 'The Hero's Cairn'. The centre has been almost completely removed and only a turf-covered peripheral fringe of stones now survives, standing to a height of 1.3m and measuring 32m in diameter; a few large boulders, apparently dislodged, may originally have formed part of a kerb. In the E side of the surviving cairn material a large cist is partly exposed; its capstone (A on plan) lies nearby. When excavated by the RCAHMS (J B Stevenson 1978), it was clear that its contents had been disturbed at some time. However, several fragments of a food vessel (now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession no: EE 168) and some small pieces of cremated bone were recovered from it. Irvine records other finds made when the cairn was destroyed; it is unlikely that this reference applies to the surviving cist, but nothing more is known about these grave-goods.
As stated by OS (RD), a small rectangular enclosure of no great age measuring 13m by 11m abuts on the perimeter of the cairn on the NE.
(See also NS94SW 18).
(RCAHMS 1978, visited 1976; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1979)
Information from OS (IF) 9 April 1979
