Excavation
Date August 1969
Event ID 930960
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/930960
This cairn, which was excavated by officers of the Commission in 1969, shortly before its complete destruction in quarrying operations, stood upon the summit of Cairny (259m OD), a conspicuous hill lying 3km ESE of Caldercruix. The following account is a summary of the excavation report (G S Maxwell 1978).
Probably once circular on plan, but trimmed by recent ploughing along its S side to an oval shape measuring 6.4m by 5.5m, the cairn proved to be of composite nature; the lower part, which formed the bulk of the cairn material, consisted of a well-built mound of boulders and earth 0.45m high, while over this was a capping of layered turf 0.18m in average thickness. Occupying what would have been a central position, had the original plan been indeed circular, was an irregularly-shaped cist measuring 1.17m by 0.84m along the axes and 0.35m deep. It had been constructed of a seemingly haphazard assemblage of slabs and rounded boulders resting directly on the old ground- surface, and had been filled with a mixture of black earth and stones, together with a few minute fragments of cremated bone. No capstone was discovered, and it would appear that the grave was sealed simply by the turf capping. Unfortunately a robber-pit had been driven down into the cist, severely disturbing the filling, and no relics were discovered inside, although part of a jet or lignite bracelet, found in topsoil on the N periphery of the cairn, may have been one of the associated grave-goods.
Immediately to the S of the cist, incorporated in the body of the cairn, was a pocket of cremated bone, identified as probably belonging to a young male adult, while fragments of cremation were also found scattered over the old land-surface beneath the cairn, together with a number of flint flakes, a flint scraper and several small sherds of coarse pottery; one of the latter, which bore traces of impressed decoration, may have been part of a Beaker. (The finds are now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland {NMAS})
RCAHMS 1978, visited August 1969; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1979 (Donations).
