Burngrange

Chambered Cairn, Burngrange (LNK 1).

This cairn, which lies within the group of small cairns described under RCAHMS 1978 No. 64 [NT05SW 17], is situated on gently sloping moorland 780 m N of Burngrange, near the foot of the SW slopes of Horse Law and 300 m E of the Westruther Burn. It has suffered severe damage from stone-robbing and the construction of a stone sheepfold at its E end, and what remains is now largely obscured by a thick growth of heather. Aligned with the long axis running from WNW to ESE, the cairn material is about 7 m broad at the W end, increasing to a maximum of about 12 m at the most easterly point where a measurement can still be taken with any certainty. The E end has been mutilated to such an extent by the building of the sheepfold that without excavation it is no longer possible to determine the original length of the cairn. As shown on the plan, however, it can be seen to be at least 30 m long, and it may originally have extended for a further 6 m as far as the W arc of the sheepfold. Towards the W end, where it is best preserved, the cairn material survives to an average height of 1.2 m. A number of large earthfast boulders belonging to a kerb can be seen intermittently round the edge of the cairn material, protruding up to 0.4 m above it.

Towards the E end of the cairn, and aligned approximately at right angles to the long axis, there is a lateral chamber opening to the S, of which only the end-slab and four of the side-slabs are at present visibly still in position; several other large slabs are lying dislodged within the interior. As exposed, the chamber measures about 1.0 m in width by 3'0 m in length, but if, as is likely, it extended outwards as far as the line of the kerb flanking the S side of the cairn, the total length would have been about 4.6 m.

Three upright stones, situated 4.3 m N of the chamber just described, may be the two portal-stones and one of the slabs forming the E side of a second lateral chamber on the same alignment as the first, and opening to the N.

RCAHMS 1978, visited June 1974

NT04NW 030 495

NT 0308 4954. A heather-covered cairn as described above.

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (BS) 22 February 1979.

This cairn is situated on the fringe of flat open ground and is now heavily overgrown with heather. As described previously, it has been extensively robbed to build a circular sheepfold which now overlies its ESE end. The cairn is trapezoidal on plan, narrowing as it runs downslope towards the WNW. In its present form, the chamber appears to be a simple box defined by an L-shaped arrangement of edge set slabs on the WNW and NNW, though it is unclear which forms the end and which the side. If the cairn originally extended as far as the W arc of the sheepfold, the chamber stands quite far from this ESE end, making its interpretation as a lateral chamber entered from the SSE more likely. Two loose slabs nearby may be displaced cap stones. The upright stones to the NE of this chamber, mentioned in the earlier account, are still visible but their function remains uncertain.

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, SPH) 16 July 2013