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Newton Hill, Cairnborrow
Long Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Newton Hill, Cairnborrow
Classification Long Cairn (Neolithic)
Canmore ID 17324
Site Number NJ44SE 7
NGR NJ 4534 4140
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/17324
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Glass
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ44SE 7 4534 4140.
(NJ 4534 4140 and NJ 4537 4132) Cairns (NR)
(See also NJ44SE 8)
OS 6" map 1959.
A long horned cairn 108' long, oriented E-W across the ridge of Newton Hill. It is 50' wide across the E end, where it is 5 - 6' high but the horns project obliquely to give a maximum width of about 65' and edge a forecourt apparently 10' deep. The W, and lower, end is about 30' wide. Two cuttings have been made into the E end, but neither revealed any stone structure within the cairn. Although named Cairnborrow by Henshall (Henshall 1963), the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB, 1871) states that the cairn does not bear a distinctive name.
Name Book 1871; A S Henshall 1963.
A long horned cairn as described and planned by Henshall. No name is known locally for the cairn in particular, though the area as a whole is called Cairnborrow.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (ISS) 28 November 1972.
Field Visit (18 April 1957)
Long Cairn, Newton Hill.
This cairn lies athwart the broad summit ridge of Newton Hill a few yards N. of the highest point at a height of 980 feet O. D. 700 yards NW. of Cairnborrow Lodge ( called Newton on 1902 O. S. map). It is one of several large cairns in the district N. of the river Deveron and N. of the Burn of Cairnborrow, that is known as Daugh of Cairnborrow, but all the others are round. The cairn is aligned from W. to E. with the façade to the E. and measures 110 feet in length along the median line. The W. end is rounded, and at a point 25 feet E. of it the cairn measures 35 feet in width. The width gradually increases until at a point 25 feet W. of the centre of the façade it measures 50 feet in width. From this the outline of the cairn spreads to form two blunt horns, the maximum distance between the outer limits of these being 66 feet. The façade curves in to a maximum of 10 feet W. of the line joining the extreme E. limits of the horns. The cairn, the body of which has suffered from stone-robbery, stands to a maximum height of 6 feet above present ground level at the point W. of the façade where the horns finally merge into the main body of the cairn.
Visited by RCAHMS (RWF), 18 April 1957.
454414 xxv NE
Field Visit (22 March 1990)
This long cairn is situated on the rounded crest of Newton Hill. The cairn is not set on the summit of the hill, however, but lies on the gentle N slope, with its broad end on the crest and its narrower end extending down the slope to the W. Overall it measures 35m in length and tapers from 19m across the horns at the E end to 9.5m on the W, and the height of the mound decreases correspondingly from 1.8m to 0.6m.
One trench has been driven down the axis of the cairn from the forecourt, a second along the central section of the N side and a third across the axis of the cairn about 10m from the W end. These excavations, described by Henshall as unfinished (1963, 392) are apparently unpublished. The setting of the cairn suggests that its builders intended that the E end should be on the skyline when viewed from the valley of the River Deveron to the E.
Visited by RCAHMS (SH) 22 March 1990.
