Cairnhill, Monquhitter

This ring-cairn stood on the S shoulder of a low spur 300m NW of Cairnhill farmstead. It was described in 1871 as a circular heap of stones about sixty feet (18m) in diameter (ONB 1871), but when it was removed in 1894 an internal court defined by ‘rudely-built walling’ was discovered. Anderson recorded this shortly after, noting that the cairn was considerably larger than previously described, measuring ‘about twenty-eight yards in diameter’ and defined by ‘a ring of stones, some of which were nearly three feet in height’ (Anderson 1902a, 767). The internal court ‘measured about ten feet by eight feet in diameter, and was about six feet in depth’ (Anderson 1902a, 767). Two small cists were found in the SE sector of the cairn, one containing a cremation burial and the other supposedly containing an array of objects, both natural and man-made, from Neolithic flints to Romano-British glass. A pit was also discovered beneath the cairn, and contained ashes, burnt bone and a handful of Beaker sherds.

Information from RCAHMS (ARG) 8 May 2006

NJ75SE 5 7839 5225.

(NJ 7839 5225) Mohr Cairn (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map, (1959)

Destroyed 1894. Evidently a chambered tomb with Clava affinities, with secondary Beaker/Bronze Age burials and later deposits.

It is described in the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB 1871) as a circular heap of stones, about 60' in diameter and 4' high; and by Anderson (1902) , (who visited it in 1894 when its final destruction was either in hand or just completed, so that it is not clear how much he observed himself and how much he relied on the farmer) as a prehistoric cairn outlined by a ring of stones (some nearly 3' high), enclosing a circular area of about 28yds diameter, the whole embedded in an elongated clearance heap. In the course of its destruction a central sub-circular chamber, apparently without a passage entrance, 8'-10' diameter and 6' deep was found, with two short cists, and a long (6') earth-cut groove' to its S end within the peristalith. No relics were found in the chamber; one short cist contained a cremation, and the 'groove' contained a deposit of ashes and burnt bone, from which 5 sherds of a handled beaker (in NMAS in 1934) were recovered.

Reputedly from the second short cist, or very close to it, came a heterogeneous collection of objects - some 50 natural pebbles, a piece of amber, 2 Neolithic flint implements (a small flaked axe and a polished ovate), a small jet ring and 6 small Romano British (Curle 1932) glass items (possibly gaming pieces or ornaments).

Name Book 1871; J Anderson 1902; J Curle 1932; M E C-Mitchell 1934.

Stevenson (1967) suggests that this late Neolithic ring cairn was partly denuded by Roman times, and the small secondary cist exposed; the other cist containing the cremation may be of Middle Bronze Age date. So it is probable that the Roman objects were placed in an exposed cist and covered up again. The majority of the finds are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS].

R B K Stevenson 1967.

Classification of Roman material.

A S Robertson 1970.