Fairy Knowe, Hill Of Airthrey

Cairn, 'Fairy Knowe', Hill of Airthrey.

OIn a shoulder of the Hill of Airthrey, a quarter of a mile SE of Sunnylaw farmhouse and at a height of 480 ft OD, there is a round cairn, known as the 'Fairy Knowe'; it was excavated in 1868, when a trench 12' wide was driven through the centre (1). Before excavation the cairn is said to have measured 78' in diameter and 21' in height, but it now measures about 60' in diameter at the base and only 7'6" in height. The top is flat and 18' in diameter.

The excavation revealed a cist in the centre of the cairn, laid on the original surface of the ground, and measuring 2'6" in length, 1'6" in breadth and 3' in depth. Its walls were formed partly of upright slabs and partly of small stones laid horizontally, while the floor and the roof each consisted of a single slab. Within it there was a deposit, 6" in depth, of black earth, charcoal and fragments of human bone. The cist was covered by a heap of large stones, 8' in diameter and 13' high, and this in turn was covered with earth, in which there were charcoal, blackened stones, fragments of human and animal bones and unctuous black earth. Among these remains were found six flint arrowheads, a fragment of what was thought to be a stone spearhead, and a piece of pine which, it was suggested, may have formed part of a spear-shaft.

In addition to the burial in the cist, the excavators found a Beaker (2), now lost, at a depth of 2' from the top of the cairn. Fragments of another vessel, of unspecified type, were also recovered.

RCAHMS 1963, visited 17 August 1952.

(1) PSAS, vii (1866-8), 519 ff.

(2) PSAS, xxxviii (1903-4), 338 and 394, No. 105

Fairy Knowe, Hill of Airthrey NS 796 981 NS79NE 1

This barrow has been reduced to a mound measuring 18m in diameter and 2.2m high. Excavations in 1868 revealed the main body of the mound to be earthen, but at its centre there was a small cairn covering a cist which had been built on the old ground surface and contained a large deposit of cremated bone and charcoal. In addition to a Beaker (now lost) found near the summit of the mound, fragments of an 'urn', 'half a dozen' arrowheads and what may have been a number of other cremation deposits were also discovered.

RCAHMS 1979, visited September 1978

(Alexander 1868; RCAHMS 1963, pp. 59-60, no. 6)

The Fairy Knowe is a large bronze-age round cairn measuring 18m in diameter by 2.2m in height. What distinguishes it from the comparatively sizeable number of similar cairns to be found close by is that it was partly excavated in 18G8 and, instead of being totally removed thereafter, was restored and preserved. Such enlightened action frequently occured on large estates where landowners appreciated antiquities as landscape features and did not feel financially constrained to squeeze every available inch for agricultural use. By modern standards the 19th century excavation was technically rather crude and on a limited scale; nevertheless, it tells us a great deal about the date and use of the cairn. A 12 ft (3 .64m) wide trench was driven through the centre of the mound revealing two burial deposits; one was a cist found at the centre, and the other lay high up in the body of the cairn. The central cist was built on top of the old land surface (not dug through it as is often the case), and during construction its end and side-slabs had been supported by a ring of small stones. The floor was formed by a single large slab on which there were the remains of an inhumation together with fragments of charcoal. Once the cist had been sealed, it was covered by a capping of stones, thus creating a small cairn. The rest of the material was then piled over the top of this cairn. Mixed in with the matrix of the mound there were quantities of charcoal, pottery and bones; this is frequently encountered in cairns, and is normally interpreted as the scraped-up debris of feasting lituals associated with the funerary rites of the dead. The other burial was indicated by a Beaker found high up in the cairn. It was clearly a secondary deposit and may have been one of many later burials inserted into the mound.

The excavation showed that the cairn was erected in the early bronze age and was used as a mausoleum, possibly over a long period of time.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).