Fairy Knowe
Cairn (Bronze Age), Short Cist(S) (Bronze Age), Cinerary Urn (Bronze Age), Knife (Flint), Whetstone
Site Name Fairy Knowe
Classification Cairn (Bronze Age), Short Cist(S) (Bronze Age), Cinerary Urn (Bronze Age), Knife (Flint), Whetstone
Canmore ID 57804
Site Number NT67SW 10
NGR NT 6260 7484
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/57804
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Stenton (East Lothian)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT67SW 10 6260 7484
(NT 6260 7484) Urn, Flint Knife and Whetstone found AD 1877 (NAT)
OS 6" map (1957).
The site of the 'Fairy Knowe', a cairn about 38ft in diameter and defined by a circle of large boulders from 5 to 15 cwt each. It had been covered by a mound of field-gathered stones 105ft in diameter and up to 14ft high at the centre. The cairn was removed in 1877, at which time a square cist containing an inverted cinerary urn and a short cist containing a flint knife, a whetstone and a piece of skull were found. The finds were presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS EQ 68-70) by Lady Mary C Nisbet Hamilton in 1880.
G Marjoribanks 1880; NMAS 1892; RCAHMS 1924.
The published find-spot falls at the edge of a ploughed-out grass-covered mound, almost certainly all that remains of the 'Fairy Knowe' cairn. The name is not known locally.
Visited by OS (RD), 6 April 1966.
Field Visit (20 June 1913)
About 150 yards west of Newbarns in the Roodwell Park, a field on the farm of Meiklerig, at an elevation of about 300 feet above sea-level stood a cairn, some 40 feet in circumference, which was known by the name of the Fairy Knowe. It was excavated in 1877 and two short cists were discovered, one containing a cinerary urn and incinerated remains, and the other a flint knife and a whetstone along with burnt bones (1).
RCAHMS 1924, visited 20 June 1913.
(1)Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xiv., p. 220.