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Abernethy Hill
Building (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Abernethy Hill
Classification Building (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Witches' Graves; Long Man's Grave
Canmore ID 27920
Site Number NO11NE 15
NGR NO 1893 1533
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/27920
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Abernethy (Perth And Kinross)
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NO11NE 15 1893 1533.
(NO 1893 1533) Witches' Graves (NR)
OS 6" map, (1959)
A number of small mounds enclosed by an embankment. Crawford saw the foundations of a rectangular building here, 36 paces x 5 paces - ? black house, also, according to local information, called Long Man's Grave. He states that the slopes are very misleading and need redrawing.
Name Book 1860; OS 6" map annotated by O G S Crawford, 18 April 1940.
This shallow, elongated depression, 33.5m x 5.0m, known as 'Witches' Graves', is accepted locally as a 'lint-baulking' site in use in the early 19th century. There is no Authority for the names 'Witches' Graves' or 'Long Man's Grave' (Information from Mr N Peddie, local historian, Postmaster, Abernethy).
Revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (W D J), 5 August 1965.
The remains of a long building are situated in a natural hollow on a NW-facing terrace of Abernethy Hill. It lies on a slight slope, dropping from SW to NE, and measures 21.5m from NE to SW by 7.5m over walls reduced to a grass-grown bank up to 2.6m in thickness and 0.5m in height; there is a possible entrance midway along the SE side. An outshot at the NE end of the building measures 11.8m by 6.8m overall and has opposed entrances at its SW end.
The building is depicted on both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire, 1866, sheet cx and 1902, sheet cx.SE, respectively) and named 'Witches' Graves'. A previous suggestion by OS surveyors that the remains are those of a lint baulking site is unlikely; not only is the interior of the structure sloping, but it does not lie on a convenient water source.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 28 November 1996.
