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Table Rings
Cairn (Prehistoric)
Site Name Table Rings
Classification Cairn (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Penshiel, Penshiel Hill
Canmore ID 57554
Site Number NT66SW 3
NGR NT 63707 63546
NGR Description Centre
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/57554
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Whittingehame
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT66SW 3 6370 6354.
(NT 6370 6354) Table Rings (NAT)
OS 6" map (1957)
'Table Rings': This cairn stands just over 1150ft OD on the shoulder of Penshiel Hill. The cairn itself measures about 33ft in diameter at the base and has a flat top 23ft in diameter. It rises to a height of 4ft above the bottom of a surrounding ditch which is about 23ft wide. Outside this is a low earthen bank about 7ft wide. The whole structure has the appearance of a bell cairn.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 1913; R W Feachem 1963.
'Table Rings': name verified. This turf and heather covered cairn is generally as described, though it cannot be classed as a bell cairn. It appears undisturbed and stands 1.3m above a ditch which averages 5m wide. There is no suggestion of a berm. The bank, up to 3.5 wide around the regular arc of the east side, forms a series of straights around the less pronounced west side. It averages 0.7m high internally and 0.4m high externally. Of possible significance is an earthfast and protrate slab, 1.0m long and 0.5m wide, on the western edge of the cairn's flat top.
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (JRL) 20 April 1979
NT 6370 6354. A rescue excavation and watching brief were undertaken at this round cairn (NMRS NT66SW 3) surrounded by a ditch and external bank, which had been inadvertently damaged by the digging of a trench intended for a sunken grouse butt and associated drainage. The excavations showed that the external bank is of simple construction, formed largely of upcast subsoil - presumably extracted from the ditch. A turf-derived layer beneath topsoil on the summit of the bank represents either a turf capping or, more likely, an earlier phase of turf growth. No old ground surface was located beneath the bank, which suggests that the area was stripped of turf during cairn construction. The ditch was c 0.9m deep.
A detailed contour survey of the site was completed, and a rapid erosion survey of rabbit damage was conducted.
The watching brief ensured that the site was reinstated to its previous profile and that no further damage occurred on monument during the excavation of the new shooting butt, c 3m to the N of the cairn.
A report has been lodged with the NMRS.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland
R Strachan 1998.
Field Visit (12 June 1913)
232. Bell Cairn, Table Rings, Penshiel Hill.
On a gentle slope on the north-east shoulder of Penshiel Hill, about 1000 yards south-west of Kingside School, at an elevation of over 1000 feet above sea-level, is a circular cairn of stones surrounded by a broad trench with an earthen bank outside, a typical bell cairn, marked Table Rings on the O.S. map. The cairn is almost flat on the top with a very slight hollow in the centre, as if some slight excavation had been attempted, and it is built not exactly in the centre of the saucer like excavation, but rather nearer the north western and western arcs of the enclosing bank. The trench has been excavated to a depth varying from 2 feet on the south-west to 1 foot 3 inches on the north-east, and the bank varies from 9 inches in height above outside level on the south-west to 1 foot 6 inches on the north-east to allow for the slope of the hill and keep the top of the enclosing bank about level. The whole structure is nearly circular, the external diameters varying only 3 feet. From north-west to south-east the diameter over all is 96 feet and from north-east to south-west 93 feet. The bank varies in width from 6 feet on the north-west and north-east to 7 feet on the south-west and 8 feet on the south-east, while it rises about 2 feet 9 inches above the bottom of the trench, which is 21 feet broad at the northwest, 22 feet at the south-west, 27 feet at the south-east and 25 feet at the north-east. The cairn is 34 feet in diameter at the base and 24 feet at the top from north-west to south-east, 31 feet at the base and 22 feet at the top from north-east to south-west, and it rises 4 feet 3 inches above the bottom of the trench.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 12 June 1913.
OS Map: xvi. S.E.
Note (6 January 2020)
The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed.
