Archaeology Notes

Event ID 709784

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/709784

NT15SW 2 108 510 to 1077 5054.

(Names: NT 1077 5054 and NT 1077 5107) Cairns (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

There is a group of over 50 circular or oval cairns on the E slopes of North Muir Hill, between 900ft and 1000ft OD. They measures 15ft in average diameter and are seldom over 1ft in height. When visited, the area was thickly covered with heather and it was impossible to see if any of the cairns was sepulchral; it is likely, however, that they were mainly, if not entirely, field clearance heaps. (For a more recent assessment of the period and purpose of small cairns of this type by the RCAHMS cf NT05SE 3).

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959

Centred at NT 108 510 are between 80-100 clearance cairns which occupy over 4 hectares of gentle S and E facing slopes between 305-330m OD. They appear randomly placed and no field plots are discernible, although two widely spaced examples are connected by a low lynchet. The cairn group published at NT 1077 5054 comprises 3 similar clearance mounds in an area now disturbed by drainage channels. The mounds lying beside the footpath are modern stone dumps.

Visited by OS (JRL) 23 February 1979