Auchenmalg, 'black Cairn'

NX25SW 20 2477 5276.

(NX 2477 5277) Black Cairn (NR)

OS 6" map (1909)

There are but few remains of a cairn here. It consists of some marks of buildings nearly level with the surface on the top of a circular mound or hill. There is scarcely any tradition relating to it.

Name Book 1849.

'Black Cairn' is listed as a defensive site by the RCAHMS, but they note that the name "Black Cairns" is locally applied to a field on Auchenmalg farm, and not as indicated by OS. Around the edge of the small rocky knoll is a circular earth-and-stone bank, with a shallow internal ditch 5' wide, enclosing an area 29' in diameter. The entrance, 6' wide, is in the SW, where the ditch is broken. The internal surface irregularities suggest that there may have formerly existed some further construction, now demolished.

RCAHMS 1912, visited 1911.

This is neither a cairn nor a 'defensive site', but simply a small stone enclosure, probably of no great age.

Information from Dr K A Steer (RCAHMS), 13 October 1953

NX 2477 5276 A circular enclosure 16.0m in overall diameter is situated on the top of a rock outcrop and comprises an earth and stone bank 1.7m wide and 0.6m high. The shallow internal ditch is almost certainly the quarry for the bank material. A level stony "platform" evident in the interior is the site of the trig shown on the OS 25" county series map. Within the southern quadrant of the enclosure are the vague grass-covered foundations of a sub-rectangular structure measuring 3.5m by 3.0m and up to 0.2m high. These remains and the "platform" are probably the marks of buildings noted by the ONB. The entrance in the SW is no more than a flattening of the bank probably associated with the trig platform.

This feature is not a cairn and is probably a relatively modern enclosure as suggested by Dr Steer. The field is still known locally (Mr Ramsay, Gillespie) as Black Cairns.

Visited by OS (BS) 26 April 1977