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Balintore, Sloc Geal

Burial Ground (Prehistoric)(Possible)

Site Name Balintore, Sloc Geal

Classification Burial Ground (Prehistoric)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) Balintore, Burial-ground; 'ghost's Hillock'

Canmore ID 15259

Site Number NH87NE 5

NGR NH 861 754

NGR Description NH c. 861 754

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/15259

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Fearn
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Ross And Cromarty
  • Former County Ross And Cromarty

Archaeology Notes

NH87NE 5 c. 861 754

(Area: NH 861 754) Inhumations, some in cists, found in the vicinity of Ross Crescent, SW of Balintore, during building operations and as chance finds between 1937 and 1955 and possibly before. A tradition of burials survives; local names "Ghosts Hillock" (Davidson 1948) and Sloc Geal (The White Pit) (Information from J Howdle to OS 28 August 1961). The evidence suggests a fairly large cemetery, possibly Bronze Age.

A mound of sand was levelled for foundations in 1937 (the houses on the NW side of the road at the Balintore end of Ross Crescent were built 1938-9 (Information from J Robb, 16 Underhill Road, Matson, Glos, and D Robb, 22 Ross Cresent, Balintore) and a number of human bones were found. An inhumation in a cist was associated with "flints or sharp stones" with two skulls nearby is recorded (Davidson 1948), but their relationship to the mound is not clear. Local tradition confirms that during 1938-9 building "skulls and other bones were found" reputed to have been sent by the builder (name not known but suspected to be Ross from Tain) to Edinburgh (Information from J Robb, 16 Underhill Road, Matson, Glos, and D Robb, 22 Ross Cresent, Balintore). More recently short cist burials have been found in some of the back gardens in the vicinity.

No. 21 Ross Crescent (NH 8609 7543) is sited on the S edge of hollow "Sloc Geal" (Information from H Ross, General merchant, Shandwick; A Vass, 4 Park Street, Balintore; D Vass, Chapel Hill, Nigg; N Vass, 3 Park Street, Balintore; J Robb, 16 Underhill Road, Matson, Glos) and a skeleton, "so old that it was doubled up" was found during building of this house 1955-6 and was said to have been sent to Edinburgh (Information from H Ross, General merchant, Shandwick; A Vass, 4 Park Street, Balintore). There is a tradition of many burials in this hollow (Information from D Vass, Chapel Hill, Nigg).

(NH 8608 7538) Human bones were found when the foundations of the Church Hall were being excavated on the S side of the road (Information from H Ross, General merchant, Shandwick; A Vass, 4 Park Street, Balintore; J Robb, 16 Underhill Road, Matson, Glos).

J M Davidson 1948.

Mrs Skinner (J Skinner, 13 Ross Crescent, Balintore) says that a burial (which she thinks was in a stone coffin) was unearthed whilst the foundations for No. 8 Ross Crescent at NH 8617 7549 were being dug in 1937 on the SW side of a large sandhill known locally as "Bruchal Mhor". According to Mr Mackenzie (G Mackenzie, 7 Bank Street, Balintore) two cists containing two crouched skeletons were uncovered from this same mound, but on the NE side of it at NH 8619 7552 in 1935. Mr Macleod (F Macleod, 15 Bank Street, Balintore) states that when the mound was levelled during 1937, human bones were noted and an excavated by Aberdeen University revealed a group of about 13 extended skeletons. Hugh Ross and Andrew Vass are deceased and nothing is known locally of the alleged burial at 21 Ross Crescent, nor could any further information be gained about the bones under the church hall.

Sloc Geal is now filled in, and believed to have been centred about NH 8618 7542.

Visited by OS (I S S) 4 September 1972.

Burial ground / short cists.

CFA/MORA Coastal Assessment Survey 1998.

Activities

Note (1979)

Balintore 1 NH 860 753 NH87NE 5

Between 1937 and 1955 numerous burials, probably of prehistoric date, were found in this area (NH 860 753 - NH 861 755). There were at least four cists and one crouched inhumation.

RCAHMS 1979

(Davidson 1946, 26)

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