Orbliston

NJ35NW 3 3019 5859.

(Area NJ 303 584) A pair of 15th - 16th century BC gold ear-ornaments were found in a cist in a gravel knoll in 1863 and a gold lumula of the same period and thought to be from the same knoll, was found in August 1868.

The knoll lay on Orbliston Farm 200 yards north of Fochabers Station (NJ 3042 5824) and was being cut for the construction of the railway when the cist was found at a depth of 3'. It lay 40 yards from what was locally termed the 'Old Road'. The cist was paved but had crumbled almost to sand. No pottery is recorded though the type of ear-ornament is apparently associated with beakers.

The lunula was discovered among railway ballast which was thought to have come from the same knoll as the cist, and when found was 'rolled up as a scroll'. It is ornamented with incised lines.

One of the ear-ornaments, after passing through various hands, was donated to National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] by Alexander Walker, Aberdeen in 1869 (EQ 117). The other was lost. The lumula was donated to NMAS by the Lords Commissioners of HM Treasury in 1873 (FE 2)

N Paton 1871; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1874; NMAS 1892; I C Walker 1967.

The only cutting through a natural knoll N of Fochabers Station is at NJ 3019 5859, and this is almost certainly where the cist was found. Otherwise no further information

Visited by OS (A A) 7 May 1971.