Logan Cottage

NT12NW 1 1083 2886.

(NT 108 288) In March 1968 a long cist containing an unaccompanied inhumation was discovered by Mr A Lorimer, Mossfennan, immediately SE of the bridge carrying the Edinburgh-Moffat road over a small tributary of the River Tweed at Logan Cottage. The cist lies in a small plantation of pine trees on a gravel terrace overlooking the Tweed and some 15m from it; the centre of the cist is situated 5.64m SE of milestone 33, which stands at the S end of the E parapet of the bridge. The NE end of the cist became exposed in the edge of the hole torn out by the roots blown down in a gale the previous January. It was excavated by A MacLaren and J N G Ritchie shortly after its discovery.

The cist had been inserted into a shallow pit dug into the natural sand and gravel so that its cover-stones lay c. 0.5m below the present surface. Oriented NE-SW, it was wedge-shaped, measuring at least 1.5m x 0.33m x 0.23m, though it had been partly destroyed at the NE end by the fall of the tree.

Its construction, orientation, burial rite and the absence of grave goods are typical of the large number of long cist burials, whose distribution is predominately south-eastern, exemplified by the cemetery at Parkburn (NT26NE 28) for which a date between the 6th and 8th centuries seems most reasonable.

A MacLaren 1971

NT 1083 2886. Although there is now no trace of the cist, an accurate siting was obtained from the fallen tree.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (DWR) 18 September 1972.