Burgie Lodge

NJ06SE 4 090 606.

(NJ 0882 6066) Stone Coffin containing Human Remains, Bead Ornaments and an Urn found AD 1848 (NAT)

OS 6" map (1938)

(Centred NJ 090 606) An extensive Bronze Age short-cist cemetery has been revealed by intermittent sand and gravel quarrying north of the Elgin-Forres road. MacFarlane, about 1723, mentions stones and graves beside the King's Highway near Newmiln. The NSA records the discovery of several cists, none of which was covered by a cairn, the last in 1841, and this account was followed by the ONB except that, in error, the year 1848 was substituted for 1841. In this cist (known locally as 'The General's Grave' in 1913, according to Callander) were found an urn, 10 by 7 ins, and a jet necklace. Part of the urn and the triangular terminal plate of the necklace are in the Falconer Museum, Forres. Callander, who notes this as "No.17 Dam of Burgie", quotes the Rev. D Gordon of Birnie as saying that the necklace was broken up and its parts dispersed, only the Forres Museum's terminal plate surviving. Dr Gordon mentions that a detailed account of the find and a reconstruction drawing of the necklace was published in the Forres Gazette. Callander distinguishes between this necklace and another "No.32 Newmill, Alves" in Elgin Museum consisting of eight beads, four plates and a triangular pendant. Murray mentions further cists found in 1843 and 1844, the last containing a skeleton, urn and beads (possibly on the authority of the Forres Gazette 7 April 1841) but Callander does not mention these. Between the end of July 1913 and the middle of April 1914 seven more cists were found. Detailed accounts were published in the local papers by the tenant of Burgie Lodge Farm, C M Bruce, and Callander visited the site and described the position of the cists. Two were found on a small round knoll 39 yds WSW of "The Fairy Stone" (a glacial erratic with traditional supernatural associations - NJ 0921 6080), another on a gravel hillock 110 yds ESE, while 150 yds SW was a group of four cists on a NW-SE sandy ridge within 30 yds of each other.

The northernmost cist, found in April 1914, contained a food vessel and had, for one of its side-slabs, a stone bearing markings made by sharpening stone axes. The next-but-one cist, 25 yds to the SE, contained a skeleton, a food vessel and a jet necklace "No.18 Burgie Lodge". The urns and necklace were presented to Elgin Museum.

W Macfarlane 1906; New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845 (G Mackay); Name Book 1870; J G Callander 1916; D Gordon 1878; J G Murray 1930

The small round knoll where two cists were found in 1913 lies at NJ 0920 6077. It is mutilated by quarrying and debris from adjacent filter beds. No trace of the cists could be seen.

The gravel hillock 110 yds to the ESE, at NJ 0928 6077, is grassed over and shows no sign of a cist.

The location of the NW-SE sandy ridge 150 yds to the SW is now partly obliterated by filter beds but the find-spot of the group was located at NJ 0916 6063. No cists were seen.

The site of the cist found in 1841, in an arable field revealed nothing. The sites of the other cists could not be identified.

In the Falconer Museum, Forres, is a small piece of a jet ornament - accession no. 54 - labelled "Burgie Dam". There are also a few pieces of urn - accession nos. 40-42 - which may come from this site.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 September 1963

In Elgin Museum is part of a jet necklace found in an urn near Newmill, Burgie (NJ 0960) in 1840.

Visited by OS (AA) 17 May 1971