Ayr, Alloway, Cairn Crescent
Cairn (Bronze Age), Cist (Bronze Age)
Site Name Ayr, Alloway, Cairn Crescent
Classification Cairn (Bronze Age), Cist (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 41619
Site Number NS31NW 6
NGR NS 3297 1862
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/41619
- Council South Ayrshire
- Parish Ayr
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Kyle And Carrick
- Former County Ayrshire
NS31NW 6 3297 1862.
(NS 3297 1862) Cairn (NR) (Site of)
OS 25" map (1969)
A cairn, marked by a solitary tree, stood on the lands of Greenfield. The tenant, Mr Girdwood, found a number of urns and other "remains of mortality" when he excavated it.
J Paterson 1847
This cairn, marked by a solitary ash tree is 12.0m in diameter and 1.0m in maximum height. It is grass-covered but several stones are visible at the base of the tree.
Visited by OS (JD) 16 December 1955
The cairn was surveyed at 1:1250 in 1960, but by 1966 it had been removed and the site built upon. A commemorative cairn has been erected at NS 3295 1862 by the Burns Society.
Information from OS Reviser 13 June 1960 and 10 October 1966.
This cairn was systematically removed by a mechanical grab in March 1963. The cairn had a core of water-worn stones and small boulders but no traces of a burial were found in or under it. The grab removed the first six inches of the underlying subsoil, but no traces of a burial pit, sherds or the slabs of a cist were found. However, in September, a mechanical excavator struck the remains of a small cist whose position appears to have been beyond the edge of the cairn (which by then had been completely removed). Its stones had been much disturbed but one which may have been the capstone was at least 3 1/2ft by about 2ft. Two other stones may have marked the west end of the cist. In the adjacent earth there were tiny fragments of bone, mixed with some modern wood shavings. The evident disturbance and confusion of the remains renders fruitless any speculation about the character and date of the cist.
E W MacKie and A S Robertson 1963
OS Reviser confirmed. The modern cairn built in 1965, has a plaque commemorating the mention of the cairn in Tam O'Shanter' by Burns. Visited by OS (JRL) 29 September 1980
Field Visit (March 1985)
Cairn Crescent Alloway NS 3297 1862 NS31NW 6
This cairn was removed in the course of house construction at the N end of Cairn Crescent, Alloway, in March 1963. The mound which measured 12m in diameter by 1m in height (OS field report), was removed systematically with a mechanical digger, showing that it had a core of water-worn stones and small coulders, but there was no trace of a burial (Mackie and Robertson 1963). In September 1963, however, a mechanical digger struck a small cist which appears to have lain beyond the edge of the cairn. The cist was severly disturbed and some tiny fragments of bone mixed with modern wood shavings were recovered from the adjacent earth. One of the stones, which may have been the capstone, measured at least 1.05m by 0.6m.
The cairn is usually associated with a cairn mentioned in Burn's Tam o'Shanter and it has been commemorated by a plague on a modern cairn at NS 3295 1862.
Before 1847 'a number of urns and other remains of mortality' were found in the cairn and Smith also refers to an 'urn' found in it.
RCAHMS 1985, visited (SH) March 1985.
(Paterson 1863-6, i, 119; Smith 1895, 158; DES 1963, 22).
