Pitcairn
Cairn (Bronze Age), Cist (Bronze Age), Cinerary Urn(S) (Bronze Age)
Site Name Pitcairn
Classification Cairn (Bronze Age), Cist (Bronze Age), Cinerary Urn(S) (Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) Old House Of Pitcairn; Pitcairn House Policies; Glenrothes
Canmore ID 29958
Site Number NO20SE 2
NGR NO 2732 0266
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/29958
First 100 images shown. See the Collections panel (below) for a link to all digital images.
- Council Fife
- Parish Leslie (Kirkcaldy)
- Former Region Fife
- Former District Kirkcaldy
- Former County Fife
NO20SE 2 2732 0266
The cairn which gives the Old House of Pitcairn (NO20SE 1) its name is a short distance E of the House on the crown of the field that slopes up from the road. It has been a very large structure and occupies a specially prominent position. The OSA describing it as a tumulus, reports that it was removed about 1770 when a cist, full of human bones, and at the E end, two urns of bluish clay, full of calcined bones, were found. The cairn must then have been very much reduced but the actual circle remains, untouched by the plough.
OSA 1793; T G Snoddy 1966.
Although the feature at NO 2732 0266 is situated on the crown of the field there is no evidence to suggest that it is an antiquity. It consists of an oval area 30.0 m NW-SE by 22.0m transversely which has originally been enclosed by a stone dyke, which possibly enclosed a small plantation.
Visited by OS (RD), 14 April 1972.
Finds from excavation in Kirkcaldy Museum.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Field Visit (17 June 1925)
Tumulus, near Pitcairn House.
This tumulus, says the Statistical Account (1), was removed about 1770. In it were discovered "a stone chest full of human bones," and, at the east end, "two urns of bluish clay" full of calcined bones.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 17 June 1925.
(1) Vol. vi (1793), p. 52.
