Poltalloch

NR 821 973

Between 1960 and 1962 four cists and two settings of stones became exposed during gravel extraction about 320m SW of North Lodge, and the following description, which includes information provided by the surviving field-evidence and by the excavator's original notes, is primarily a summary of the published account, (Campbell and Sandeman 1964), in which the features are named Graves 1-4 and Clusters A-B.

A hollow 0.35m deep marked the site of the first cist (Grave 1), which was destroyed by a mechanical digger. Nearby lay several slabs, including a possible side-slab and a capstone measuring 1.07m in length, 0.5m in average width and 0.1m in thickness, and having some seventy cupmarks on what was its underside when covering the cist. The hollow contained fragments of bone (some cremated) and teeth, representing an adult and a child.

The second cist (Grave 2) measured about 1m by 0.5m and 0.55m in depth internally, and was aligned NNE and SSW. The capstone, which was found in position, is 1.27m long, 0.68m broad and 0.1m thick. The floor was formed of carefully laid pebbles. Skull fragments were uncovered at the SSW end of the grave and the body had lain crouched on its right side facing E. The pebbles of the floor were discoloured by burning, and there were fragments of charcoal among the bones, suggesting that a fire had been lit in the cist before the body was deposited. A Beaker was found near the NW side-slab towards the SW end of the cist.

The third cist consisted of an irregular slab-lined hollow (Grave 3) situated 0.8m W of Grave 1. Aligned roughly E and W, it measured 1.37m by 0.74m internally, and several pieces of stone found in the interior may have formed a covering. A Food Vessel was found in what appears to have been a shallow pit set into the floor of the cist.

The fourth cist (Grave 4) was situated about 6.5m NNW of the first cist (Grave 1). Aligned WNW and ESE, it measured about 1.2m by 0.5m and up to 0.67m in depth, with the floor formed by a pavement of rounded pebbles; its rhomboidal shape was thought to have been caused by the impact of the bulldozer that disturbed it. The capstone (1.68m by 1.12m and 0.3m in greatest thickness) had at least twelve plain cupmarks on its underside, and the ESE end-slab had a single cup on its inner face and several others on its back. Six teeth and the leg bones of a young adult were recovered, indicating that the body had been laid on its right side facing S; near the teeth a little to the W of the centre of the S half of the interior there was a Food Vessel with a plano-convex flint knife close to it.

A setting of eleven small slabs (Cluster A) surrounding a neatly paved floor, which probably had an original diameter of about 0.9m, was uncovered 27m to the NW of the first cist (Grave 1). There was also a second setting of stones (Cluster B), which had been almost completely destroyed.

The lowering of the terrace as a result of gravel extraction has left the disturbed remains of the second cist (Grave 2) isolated on the summit of a small grassy hillock with the cover slab of the first cist lying about 2m to the S. What survives of Cluster A lies 25m WNW on the summit of another hillock.

The pottery from the cists is at Duntrune Castle, and the flint knife is in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

RCAHMS 1988, visited April 1984.