Piper's Grave

In the eighteenth century it was recorded that three stone coffins, or cists, were found in a small hill just north of the road leading to Ednam. Although there is very little information available, it was noted that one of the cists contained an urn, and so it seems likely that these remains date from the Bronze Age.

Most of the flat stone slabs that formed the cists have been removed. Only one remains at the top of the knoll, near the hollow formed by the excavated area. This slab has been placed upright and the knoll is now known as the Piper's Grave.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT73NW 2 7292 3739.

(Centred: NT 7293 3738) Piper's Grave (NAT).

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1919-38).

Cists, Piper's Grave.

In the 18th century three cists, one containing an urn, were opened on the Picts Know, a slight knoll half a mile W of Ednam village. (Statistical Account [OSA] 1794). The Knoll, now termed the Piper's Grave, has been enclosed and planted with trees, but the site of one of the cists is marked by a stone, evidently a side-slab or cover-slab, standing on edge beside an excavated hollow. The slab is of local freestone and measures 7ft 2in long, 4ft 10in high, and 10in thick.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 10 May 1939.

The slab marking the site of one of the cists, is as described above, and is situated in the plantation at NT 7292 3739. The site is the highest point of a low hill.

Visited by OS(RD) 31 October 1966.