Archaeology Notes

Event ID 730326

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/730326

NX88NE 2 8543 8734.

(NX 8543 8734) White Cairn (NR)

OS 6" map (1900)

'White Cairn', a long cairn, occupies an uneven site, between 400 and 450 ft OD at the side of the valley of the Cairn Water. It consists mainly of small angular stones, turf-covered for a few feet inwards, though the actual edge is clear all round the cairn. It measures 150 ft NNE-SSW by 44 ft across the N end and 85 ft some 25 ft from the S end, and has a maximum height of 14 ft. Morris (S V Morris), in a limited excavation in 1937, revealed a wall-face near the S end of the cairn, running N.

A S Henshall 1972; RCAHMS 1920

This was probably a temporary face made during the construction of the cairn. Placed diagonally across the SW corner some 13 ft within the cairn edge Morris found a setting of three boulders, possibly part of a kerb. A large boulder at the SE corner is not in situ and has possibly been cleared from the field.

Information from OS Recorder (IF) 25 November 1976

A long cairn generally as described by Miss Henshall. There is no trace of a kerb (although the edge is well defined) nor evidence of internal structures. A 3.0m long stretch of drystone walling near the south end of the cairn (see plan) is 1.3m high and is probably the wall face noted by Morris. His setting of three boulders could not be identified.

The name 'White Cairn' was confirmed locally (Mr Roden, Fleuchlarg, Dunscore).

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (BS) 14 July 1977