Youkil Hillock

ND16NE 29 1541 6545.

Youkil Hillock, noted in the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB, 1872) as 'A small natural mound' is in fact a long horned cairn, overgrown with turf and heather, situated in a prominent position. It appears to be of the common two-phase type similar to the Cnoc Freiceadain cairns (ND06NW 10 and ND06NW 11 ) comprising a roughly circular mound 1.0m high, which occupies the summit of the hill, and a low talus, 0.4m maximum height, extending down a gentle slope in a NNW direction. The summit mound has been dug into, and spoil from it piled to the SSE obscuring the facade at that point; no part of a chamber or passage is exposed, and there is no local knowledge or tradition of any finds having been made. The cairn measures 66.0m NNW-SSE, 22.0m broad at the SSE end and 15.0m wide at the NNW end. All four horns are visible though reduced; that at the SW extremity is obscured by whins.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Name Book 1872; Visited by OS (NKB) 10 March 1982

The cairn is on a slight rise in a level area of rough grazing at 99m OD. The site slopes down gently from S to N, and the ground falls away on all sides except the E.

The axis runs slightly E of S to W of N, the length of the cairn along the axis being about 67m. The S part to about 18m from the S edge has been much robbed and left uneven, mostly covered with coarse grass 13m from the S edge. This part of the cairn appears to be the remains of a much higher mound. The edge is very vague and is partly obscured by gorse. The S end appears more or less square in plan with a width of about 19m; the plan almost certainly reflects the presence of horns.

The northern two-thirds of the cairn are heather-covered. The edge along most of the E side is fairly clear, but round the N end it is less so, and along the W side it merges with the slope of the ground and is partly covered by gorse. This northern part of the cairn is low and level in long profile, generally about 0.5m high, though, due to the drop in ground level, the N end is 1.1m high measured from the N. The width for most of its length is 12 to 13m, increasing to 15.5m across the N end. At ground level this end is almost square in plan but at a slightly higher level it is concave giving the impression of a shallow forecourt between short horns. There has been little interference with the cairn edges which rise smoothly, and within them, from the remains of the high mound to about 12m from the N end, the cairn is mainly level in cross-section with some surface disturbance showing as shallow hollows, but N of this, to about 5m from the end, it is more deeply disturbed.

Visited 8 October 1988.

J L Davidson and A S Henshall 1991

Long cairn, Youkil Hillock. Long low mound with round cairn at S end, set on a steep slope. A round cairn situated at the uphill end measures 19 x 18m and 1.3m high. Two horns have been added to the S end. To the N the long mound measures 68 x 14m, 0.4m high. Orientation N-S. Visited 1986.

R J Mercer, NMRS MS/828/19, 1995