Cairn Hill, North Cairn

NW97SE 9 9733 7014.

(NW 9733 7013) Cairn (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

The indefinite remains of a small defensive enclosure, or of a cairn. There are a number of small depressions and ridges which appear to be the remains of walls over it, and towards the south there is a hollow with a diameter of about 35'. At the end of a trench dug into it a number of animal bones are exposed.

RCAHMS 1912

A large, mutilated mound of earth and stones about 2.0 - 3.0m high, bisected from north to south by a stone dyke. The part of the mound to the east of the dyke is very mutilated, only the hollow mentioned by RCAHMS being clear; but to the west of the dyke, the mound appears to be more like a cairn than anything else.

Although the exact meaning of the 'hollow' cannot be defined this appears to be a cairn rather than a defensive enclosure, the site presenting a good all-round field of view.

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 8 February 1968

The remains of a large cairn are situated on the N end of Cairn Hill 370m WSW of North Cairn farmhouse; the surface of the cairn is scarred with quarry pits, and its edge is now very ragged, but the mound of cairn material still measures 28m in diameter by 1.4m in height. On the SE the perimeter of the cairn is overlain by a possible enclosure measuring about 9.5m in diameter within a stony bank up to 3m thick and 0.4m high.

Two entries in the Name Book refer to the cairn, one describing the discovery of an 'urn containing human bones', the other 'a stone trough about 2 feet square. Covered with another stone it contained human bones'; both entries are derived from the same local informants and it likely that they refer to a single burial.

A 'fringe' of plaited moss fibres, similar to examples found in the Lochlee crannog (R Munro 1882) was found buried in clay immediately within the edge of the cairn 'some years' before 1923 (L M Mann 1923).

RCAHMS 1985, visited (SH) September 1984