Cairn (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NT 3071 7366
Archaeology & History
The only reference I can find of this long lost cairn is in William Baird’s (1898) massive history work of the area—but even in his day he reported that “it has long since disappeared.” He wrote:
“We have a curious reference in a charter of Kelso Abbey, granted about 1466, to a cairn of stones which stood near the south-east corner of the garden wall at Mount Lodge, Portobello. In the charter, where it is referred to as forming part of the boundary of the lands of Figgate, it is described as, ‘a certain heap of stones there deposited.'”
The cairn was likely of considerable size and, said Baird, “in all probability marked the site of an ancient place of sepulture.”
References:
- Baird, William, Annals of Duddingston and Portobello, Andrew Elliot: Edinburgh 1898.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
