Happy Hillock
Cairn (Prehistoric)
Site Name Happy Hillock
Classification Cairn (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 29121
Site Number NO15SE 1
NGR NO 19978 52223
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/29121
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Alyth
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NO15SE 1 1998 5225.
(NO 1998 5225) Happy Hillock (NR) (Tumulus) (NR) Stone Cists found (NAT) OS 6" map, Perthshire, 2nd ed. (1901)
"Happy Hillock" - a denuded stone cairn. Protruding from the cairn is a stone that may have been part of a short cist.
H Coutts 1970
Three short cists containing crouched burials were found when digging in the hillock in 1790. A cover slab was removed in 1866 and used as a window sill at Brawlin (NO 1952).
J Meikle 1925; F R Coles 1909
"Happy Hillock" - a badly denuded cairn surrounded by a now ruinous plantation dyke. The original diameter is uncertain, but it appears to have been about 23.0m; it survives in the NW to a maximum height of about 1.5m. Near the centre is a slab on edge (1.6m long x 0.8m high x 0.3m thick) which may be the W side of a cist oriented N-S, otherwise destroyed. It is uncertain, however, if this has been the primary burial, as the slab appears to be in the body of the cairn well above the original ground surface.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (IMT) 6 March 1974
Field Visit (June 1987)
The 'Happy Hillock' is a robbed cairn which is situated on a natural knoll at the W end of a low ridge 280m SSE of Tullymurdoch farmhouse.
It measures about 21m in diameter over a slight rim which is visible on the W, S and E; on the N, the edge is indistinct and may be masked by the remains of a dry-stone dyke which was built against the earthen or 'fael' dyke that had previously surrounded the cairn. The stone dyke was built as a result of the discovery of several cists, which contained skeletons, within the cairn whilst it was being quarried for dyke-building about 1790. The position of one of those cists may be marked by a large slab (1.5m N-S by 0.3m and 0.8m high) which sits on edge about 7m from the W edge of the cairn.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) June 1987.
RCAHMS 1990
Watching Brief (6 November 2007)
NO 1998 5222 Work was carried out 6 November 2007 during the excavation of a trench for new underground power cables. The new trench passed close to a burial cairn. No archaeologically significant deposits, features or finds were recorded.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended)
Funder: Scottish and Southern Energy
Erlend Hindmarch (AOC Archaeology Group), 2008
Watching Brief (5 July 2017 - 29 September 2017)
An archaeological watching brief was maintained on work to lay an electric cable between Coupar Angus substation and Tullymurdoch wind farm, via Welton of Creuchies wind farm. The development area was a linear corridor approximately 19km in length, running generally N/NE from Coupar Angus to finish in an upland area W of Alyth. The requirement was to monitor all soil stripping and excavation in the vicinity of several archaeological sites, pre-identified by a walkover survey conducted in 2015 by AOC Archaeology Ltd and ARCUS Archaeological Consultants. Archaeological features exposed included a group of pits, postholes and possible fires/hearths close to an unexcavated souterrain and other settlement remains.
Information from Oasis (alderarc1-299732) 4 June 2018
