Archaeology Notes

Event ID 711771

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/711771

NT24SW 44 2138 4350.

NT 214 435: Cairn: Harehope. This cairn stands on the SE edge of an old coach road from Edinburgh to Moffat. Practically all the cairn material has been robbed, and only a low turf-covered spread of stones now survives, measuring 70' in diameter and not more than one foot in height. A number of boulders protruding through the turf around the perimeter appear to belong to an original kerb. In the SE quadrant of the interior the tops of seven earthfast slabs can be seen, forming the outline of a cist-like structure about 8' in length and 3' in width. The NW quadrant contains a large boulder measuring 4' by 4' and standing 2' above the ground.

Contiguous with the outer edge of the cairn on the W and SW respectively there are two circular stony mounds, each measuring 15' in diameter and one foot in height, and 8' to the NE there is a third mound which measures 18' in diameter and 1' 6" in height. In the absence of excavation the purpose of these mounds is unknown, but their close proximity to the cairn suggests that they may be associated with it. (Information from A McLaren notebook 2, 84)

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1963

NT 2138 4350: The remains of a possible robbed cairn 19.0m in diameter arising as an earth and stone bank 1.0m wide and 0.3m high. The large boulder within the interior is typical of many that are lying on the immediate hillsides and is probably of no significance. It is possible that a sheepfold was constructed on the remains, as the surrounding rim does not have the mutilated appearance associated with robbed cairns.

Visited by OS (JLD) 14 May 1962 and (BS) 25 October 1974

The denuded remains of Harehope Cairn were excavated, along with Green Knowe unenclosed platform settlement (NT24SW 16), during 1977 and 1978 by George Jobey.

Because of its location, close to the Edinburgh to Moffat coach road, the cairn had suffered from severe stone robbing. Despite the extensive damage, two structural phases were discerned.

The perimeter of an inner cairn was observed, measuring 12.5m and defined by a kerb of roughly shaped stones. Only seven of these stones were extant, the rest being indicated by shallow stone sockets in the old ground surface. The second phase of activity related to the enlargement of the cairn in antiquity with the addition of an outer kerb, which would have expanded the diameter of the cairn to around 19m. The cairn material itself had been almost completely robbed down to the subsoil.

Beneath the cairn, four inhumations and seven cremation burials were excavated. One of the inhumations [A] (Jobey 1980, fig. 13) was accompanied by 32 V-bored conical shale buttons, a V-bored oval button, a shale belt fastener ['pulley-ring'] and a flint knife. A second inhumation [B] was furnished with a necklace of 127 lignite disc-beads. No skeletal remains were present.

A further cist burial [G] was accompanied by a complete beaker [Clarke's Developed North British type (N2, L) or Step 5] and a very large single sherd of a British/North Rhine (or Step 4) beaker. Further pottery, of European bell beaker type (all-over cord-impressed, Step 2), was recovered from different levels in the pit containing cist G. It is possible that the cist was a later insertion, which disturbed an earlier burial and dispersed the grave goods.

Information from Jobey 1980, 72-143

Several of the shale buttons from cist 'A' exhibit secondary decoration, executed some time after their original manufacture and discernable from their poor quality execution. This is especially clear on the largest example in the assemblage, which is one of the most impressive of its kind in Europe.

(see I. A. G. Shepherd in Clarke et al. 1985, p. 204-16)

RCAHMS (SO), July 2003