A once-impressive large prehistoric long cairn could be found close to the grid-reference given here, whose existence and destruction was recorded, thankfully, by local antiquarians in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. There are remains of other prehistoric sites in and around the spot—including the standing stones of both Broadgate Farm and Strathblane Church—close to which Mr J.G. Smith (1866) described,
“towards the end of last century a mound was levelled at Broadgate near this spot, and many stone coffins, each containing an urn full of earth and burnt bones, were found.”
Smith himself refers to the lengthier description of the mound’s destruction in Ure’s History of Rutherglen (1793), in which the site was described as
“an ancient burying place, the origins of which is unknown, was 60 yards in length, 14 feet in height, and of a considerable breadth. It was composed of gravel, and lay east and west. In the bottom were a great many coffins of stone, placed in a row, and separated from one another by a single flag. Every coffin contained an urn, that was full of earth and burnt bones. Beside each urn was a pillar about 3 feet in height, and 8 inches in thickness. They were fragments of basaltic five-sided columns, a few rocks of which are found in the parish. Most of the pillars are built in a dyke adjoining to the church. The urns on being touched fell in pieces.”
Due to the seemingly extravagant lay-out of this cairn, Audrey Henshall (1972) took the site to be a chambered tomb of some considerable importance. She was probably right! In her magnum opus (1972) on the subject she wrote:
“The description of the ‘cists’ suggests a segmented chamber of Clyde type, but the mound composed of gravel (instead of being a cairn) suggests a natural feature. A long mound, probably natural, exists on Broadgate Farm in which a restricted excavation produced a cist of Bronze Age type. Possibly the Strathblane mound was similar; it may have contained a segmented chamber (…where a chamber has been built into a natural mound), or it may have contained cists of later type for single burials.”
Subsequent explorations by the Royal Commission (1963) and local historians to find any remains of the site have proved fruitless.
References:
Henshall, Audrey S., The Chambered Tombs of Scotland – volume 2, Edinburgh University Press 1972.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments Scotland, Stirling – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1963.
Scott, J.G., “Inventory of Clyde Cairns,” in Megalithic Enquiries in the West of Britain,Liverpool University Press 1969.
Smith, John G., The Parish of Strathblane, James Maclehose: Glasgow 1886.
Ure, David, The History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride, Glasgow 1793.
Take the A826 road south out of Aberfeldy, uphill, till you reach the White Cairn or Carn Ban, then follow the dirt-track for 700 yards onto the moors until you reach the Glen Cochill Circle 1. From here, look at the large stone atop of the very notable rounded hillock barely 50 yards east (at NN 90367 41478) and meander on the slopes immediately below it on the south and west. If the heather’s grown back, you don’t stand a chance!
Archaeology & History
As far as I’m aware, despite there being some brief notes of cairnfields in and around the rich prehistoric arena of Glen Cochill, I can find no data indicating that the five small single cairns a short distance south and southeast of the Glen Cochill Ring (01), have been described before.
Cairn 1 – looking north
Cairn 2 – looking north
Deeply embedded into the peat, they are only visible when the heather has been burnt away, as highlighted in the accompanying photos. Each cairn is of roughly the same size and structure: 2-3 yards across and only a couple of feet above ground-level, consisting of the traditional small rounded stones, each probably constituting a single burial or cremation.
Cairn 4, below the hilltop rock
Of at least five cairns that we found here (there may be others beneath the covering heather), it was very notable that they’re on edges of a rounded pyramidal hillock, whose top is surmounted by a large pointed stone – probably a glacial erratic. We looked at this rock in the hope of finding some cup-markings, but there were none. However, it seemed as if the cairns and this crowning stone were related to each other, as if rites for the dead were proclaimed here for those in the tombs. It may sound silly, but go there and take a look at it yourselves – before the heather grows back. Just as a priests today, and shamans throughout history, have used an altar or plinth to make commemorations to the dead, so this crowning stone may equally have been used. It makes sense. And, as if to add validating ingredients: if we look east, past the crowning stone and across the River Cochill, we see the great rocks in the forest known as Creag a Bhaird, or the Crag of the Bard, from whence orations and tales were known to be told… But that’s another site with its very own story…
Acknowledgements: Once again, thanks must be given to Mr Paul Hornby for his help in finding these sites.
Along the A820 road between Dunblane and Doune, from the Dunblane-side, take the very first minor road on your right a few hundred yards after you’ve come off (or over) the A9 dual-carriageway. Go all the way to the very top of this long and winding road for several miles, until you reach the gate which prevents you going any further. Walk up the slope on your left (west) and you’ll see the large grassy mound a coupla hundred yards ahead of you. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
Highlighted on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area in 1862, this is a large rounded prehistoric cairn of some considerable size, whose position in the landscape allows for an impressive 360° view way into the distance in several directions—a deliberate ingredient, no doubt, when it came to building this probable tomb. I say “probable”, as there has never been a dig (not an ‘official’ one anyway) into the heart of this overgrown rocky mound.
Looking SE into the OchilsJudges Cairn on 1862 map
More than 60 feet in diameter at its greatest and 6 feet high, with a circumference of 67 yards (61m), the top of the mound has been disturbed and, clearly, has been dug into at some time in the distant past—but archaeohistorical accounts are silent on this matter. The first description of the Judge’s Cairn seems to have been in Peter Stewart’s (1839) notes on the local antiquities of Dunblane, where he described it most simply as:
“The Judges Cairn, yet undispersed, a circular heap of rough mountains stones covered with furze, on the farm of Bowie, barony of Kilbride.”
Along with the Ordnance Survey lads who came here in 1862, all subsequent visits gave rise to only short notes about the place. Odd, considering its size and distinct vantage point. And yet it remains hidden from view unless you come from the north, from whence that archetype of a fairy mound raises itself above Nature’s fair body into the eyes of any ambling wanderer…. A wonderful place to sit and dream for a while…
Folklore
Judges Cairn, looking NE
We enquired with a local whose family had been resident here since the mid-18th century about the name and folklore of the site, but he said he knew of nothing. However, in earlier times it was said to be a place where the local sheriff held court and dispensed justice. Mr Mackay (1984) told that the site “has been connected with the Judge’s Seat at Severie” nearby. It seems possible that, as “it is just outside the parish boundary” between Doune and Dunblane, this may have been a moot site in ancient times, from whence laws were dispensed. Old perambulation records may, perhaps, prove fruitful…
References:
Barty, Alexander, The History of Dunblane, Eneas MacKay: Stirling 1944.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.
Take the B8033 north out of Dunblane and, immediately out the other side of Kinbuck, as you cross the river, take the first track on your left to Cromlix. Keep right along here to Cullings and beyond, till you reach the edge of the forestry plantation. Go left instead of going into the trees and, instead, follow the edge of the woodland for about 750 yards. You’ll see the land rise up on the other side of the stream and the huge length of stones thereby. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
Main axis of the cairn
Not included in any major archaeology tomes, this giant long prehistoric pile of rocks—probably constructed in neolithic times—sits along the edge of a natural ridge, out of sight of all but the lone wanderer and the birds. Aligned ESE to WNW, this huge monument measures more than 61 yards (56m) in length and is 12 yards across at its present widest section. Much of the tomb has been severely robbed for stone in making the local walling: two of which emerge out of the structure itself—one running directly downhill from its larger eastern edge, and a more extensive wide line of walling running west and northwest for quite some distance. This western section of walling has the hallmarks of being constructed as far back as the Iron Age, which may be when the initial destruction of the chambered cairn first started. But, until we get an excavation here, we won’t know for sure.
Portion of the central mass of stones
Western wall leads to the cairn
The next closest tomb of any great size is the Judge’s Cairn, 1½ miles (2.4km) to the southwest. Clusters of smaller single cairns exist about nearly a mile northwest, with prehistoric settlement traces accompanying them—but nothing seems in immediate attendance to this Cromlix giant.
Other sites, obviously, await discovery in this area. We know that a spring of water roughly 50 yards east of here was used by so-called ‘witches’ in earlier centuries, for both healing and sympathetic magick. Whether this tradition ever had any relationship with the cairn is difficult to say.
References:
Royal Commission Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Braes of Doune: An Archaeological Survey, Edinburgh 1994.
Marked on the 1865 OS-map as a “tumulus”, it was destroyed by some idiot in 1818 due to some basic lacking; but we can see from the old map how close it was to the Giant’s Stone on the south-side of the River Tweed, to which it may have had an archaeological connection with. When it was destroyed, the New Statistical Account in 1845 described there being a six-foot long stone coffin (cist) beneath the tumulus, containing the usual burial urn.
Folklore
When the 18th century writer Alexander Pennecuik (1715) wrote about this old tomb, he narrated the tradition of the site as told him by the local people, telling:
“….upon the head of a burn on the south side of Tweed, stands the old-house of Hawkshaw, belonging (to) Porteous, from a numerous race of Ancestor’s Chiefs of that surname. Over against the foot of Hawkshaw-Burn in a Kairn beside the High road is the Giants Grave, so called from a huge and mighty Fellow, that robbed all on the way, but was at length from a Mount in the over side of the River supprised and shor to Death as Tradition goes.”
Tumulus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NT 3076 7177
Archaeology & History
Long since gone, this little-known burial mound could once be seen not far from the old mansion of Niddrie House. The only reference I’ve found of it is in Thomas Whyte’s (1792) early essay on the parish of Liberton, where he told:
“East from the house and plantations, and on the north side of the public road, is a rising ground, or tumulus, called the Law Know, where, in more early times, judgment was dispensed, and where, probably, certain acknowledgments were made, by those who held of the baron or family. It is of a circular form. And this is the cafe with all places of the same kind. For they were considered as emblems of the sun, that great object of Druidical worship.”
The site appears to have been destroyed when the Industrialists blasted their quarry here and, as historians well know, quarrymen are dreadful when it comes to making notes of anything! Any additional info on this place would be good….
2 cairns in line of 3, Manse Bridge (photo Sarah Maclean)
Along the A836 road between Durness and Tongue, take the minor road north to Melness and Talmine. 400 yards or so past Talmine Stores shop, walk left up the track onto the moor. Follow the track along as if you’re visiting the Talmine West settlement, but walk uphill onto the moor a hundred yards or so after the sheep-folds on your right. Before the top of the hill, keep your eyes peeled for the heather-covered rocky mounds in the moorland scattered about. You’ll find them!
Archaeology & History
A cluster of prehistoric cairns—or a cairnfield as it’s known— is found on the moorland scattering the south and eastern edges of the unnamed hill immediately west of Talmine. They can be pretty difficult to see when buried in heather, but they’re there! When Sarah Maclean took us up to see them, three in particular stood out: seemingly along a deliberate line, perhaps parallel with either an old trackway or old walling on the south slope of the hill.
Central cairn in line of 3 (photo by Sarah Maclean)
Central cairn hollowed out (photo by Sarah Maclean)
The main three that we visited were pretty easy to locate, with many loose stones comprising the respective piles, standing about 3 feet high and some 3-4 yards across. One of them (left) had been dug into, leaving a deep hollow in its centre, leaving it more exposed and visible than the others. There are other cairns on the slopes to the east, but none seemed to be as well-defined as the three here described.
In the same area are also a number of hut circles, much overgrown but still visible amongst the heather.
References:
Welsh, T.C., ‘Manse Bridge – Small Cairns, Hut Circles’, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, 1973.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Donna Murray of Borgie for putting me up (or should that be, putting up with me?!) and equally massive thanks to Sarah Maclean—also of Borgie—for guiding me up here and allowing us use of her photos to illustrate this site profile.
A mile east of Bettyhill on the A836 road, watch for the large piles of rocks up on the hill on your left (north). Turn left on the tiny road past the first house for 150 yards and then on the track past the sheep-fanks through the gate and up the small hill. The cairn is the smallest of the pile of rocks in front of you.
Archaeology & History
Of the four giant cairns clustered here at Fiscary, a mile east of Bettyhill, this one has received the least attention. It is found amidst a massive cluster of archaeological remains running from the 19th century all the way back into the neolithic period. Quite impressive!
Sitting on top of the cairn the view is impressive: looking 360º with the Orkney islands s to the northeast, Durness and the rising mountains west and southwest, and endless craggy moorlands peppered with lochans driving in all directions to the south countless miles away. This panorama of wilderness is something to behold…
Looking west out to sea
Looking southwest
The tomb itself, with the acceptable scatter of fallen rocks to the edges, is nearly 50 yards in circumference, measuring more than 12 yards east-west and nearly 14 yards north-south, with the Earth covering the older rocks to the edges with more and more vegetation as the years pass. It stands about 5-6 feet high with the typical internal mass of thousands of stones making up the cairn. No known excavations have ever been made here.
In the otherwise superb Royal Commission (1911) survey of Sutherland, they only had scant information to say about this tomb, telling that,
“The fourth cairn…measures 28′ to 30′ in diameter and is about 6′ high. There are no signs of chambers visible and the cairn has been a good deal dilapidated.”
Even when R.J. Mercer (1981) came to give this area greater attention, he passed by the Fiscary 4 cairn with equal brevity, noting simply its dimensions, elevation above sea level and the fact that it is a “circular cairn on crest of hill.”
The tombs of Fiscary 1, 2 and 3 are very close by some beginning some 257 yards (235m) to the east. I cannot recommend this entire complex highly enough!
References:
Henshall, Audrey S., The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland, Edinburgh University Press 1995.
Mercer, R.J. & Howell, J.M., Archaeological Field Survey in Northern Scotland – volume 2, University of Edinburgh 1981.
o’ Reilly, Kevin & Crockford, Ashley, What to See Around Bettyhill, privately printed 2009.
Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Second report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Sutherland. HMSO: Edinburgh 1911.
Along the A836 road from Bettyhill to Thurso, a mile east of the village keep your eyes peeled to your left (or to the right if you’re coming the other way!), looking north, and you’ll see some very large piles of stones a few hundred yards away. Go through the gate onto the rough grasslands and the first one you reach is the cairn in question. Y’ can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
On 1878 OS-map as Picts House
Close to the Fiscary 1 and Fiscary 2 tombs, this is the third and southernmost of the three giant cairns on this moorland hillside and is the second largest of the trio. Curiously it was the only one highlighted by the Ordnance Survey lads in their cartographic analysis here in 1873—they somehow missed the others—when they told it to be a ‘Pictish House’, or broch. A few years later when the Royal Commission (1911) fellas got their noses up here, they said that this,
“which is the most easterly, is circular in form, is about 68ft in diameter, and 15ft 6in to the apex, on which a small pile of stones has recently been erected. The cairn does not appear to have been excavated, but the stones in several places have been pulled out, probably in attempts to discover the chambers or in pursuit of rabbits.”
Looking into its centre
Long stone at southern edge
Considering the size of this giant cairn and its close association with is neighbours 150 yards northwest, I’m surprised at the lack of attention it’s been given. Within the collapse of stones on its southern-side we find an elongated stone which seems to have stood upright at some point in the past, either at the very edge of the cairn, or just inside it. It may even have been a covering stone to a collapsed entrance, but without an excavation we’re not gonna know for certain.
The fact that this cairn is on the slopes south of the crowning cairns of Fiscary 1 and Fiscary 2 implies that this was built some centuries later than them. Also notable here is that the view to the north is blocked and we are instead only looking across a panorama east, south and west.
Folklore
Looking across into the east
Local tradition told that this was a Pict’s house, or broch (it may well have been) and is shown as such on the first Ordnance Survey account of the region in 1878. Otta Swire (1963) told that this landscape was once peopled by giants who made the land and played a part in the creation of some of the giant tombs around here. One time local school-teacher at Bettyhill, Alan Temperley (1977) also told us how the fairy folk lived close to the giant tombs of Fiscary.
References:
Gourley, Robert, Sutherland: An Archaeological Guide, Birlinn: Edinburgh 1996.
Henshall, Audrey S., The Chambered Tombs of Scotland – volume 1, Edinburgh University Press 1963.
Henshall, Audrey S., “The Distant Past,” in The Sutherland Book (edited by Donald Omand), Northern Times: Golspie 1991.
Henshall, Audrey S., The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland, Edinburgh University Press 1995.
o’ Reilly, Kevin & Crockford, Ashley, What to See Around Bettyhill, privately printed 2009.
Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Second report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Sutherland. HMSO: Edinburgh 1911.
Sutherland, George, Folk-lore Gleanings and Character Sketches from the Far North, John o’ Groats Journal: Wick 1937.
Temperley, Alan, Tales of the North Coast, Research Publishing Company: London 1977.
Acknowledgments: HUGE thanks to Aisha Domleo and for getting me up here.
A mile east of Bettyhill along the A836 road, watch out for the large piles of rocks up on the hill on your left (north). Go through the gate, past the Fiscary 3 cairn and 150 yards northwest you’ll reach the crowning cairn on the hilltop itself – the Fiscary 2 cairn.
Archaeology & History
Fiscary 2 cairn, looking NW
The second of the three giant chambered cairns on this moorland hillside is the largest (only just!) of them all. Positioned right on top of the small hill, this great mass of rocks stands out from the roadside a quarter-mile to the south quite blatantly, yet it somehow evaded the eyes of the early Ordnance Survey lads in their visit here in 1873 (though the nearby Fiscary 3 cairn was plotted). Odd…
Aish by the side o’ the cairn
When I came here with Aisha and her clan a few weeks ago Nature was blasting us with full gales and so half her bunch returned after a short while, leaving us to get thrown about in the winds! Even just trying to stand upright on this and its associated tomb proved difficult. But despite this and the low grey clouds—typical of northern Scottish weather—it was obvious that the views from here would be superb, seeing far into the distance with a 360º view. I have little doubt that other important prehistoric sites would be speaking with this giant neolithic cairn, but there is nothing in the archaeology accounts to help us on such matters.
The giant tomb is almost linked to its companion—Fiscary 1—by a low scatter of rocks running between them, with only a yard or two separating their disturbed masses. Several archaeology students have posited that the two seemingly separate sites were, many thousands of years ago, perhaps one elongated chambered tomb, just like the ones found nearby at the Coille na borgie and Long Skelpick cairns; but it seems unlikely in this case…
Fiscary (2) on 1908 mapFiscary (2), looking SE
Although Adam Gunn (1893) mentioned the “four large cairns” at Fiscally (the fourth and smallest is 262 yards to the west), the first real description I can find of the place comes from an article by a local man called Cathel Kerr (1892) who told us it was “about 220 feet in circumference, and 15 or 16 in height”; but most of his article dealt with his excavation into the adjacent Fiscary 1 tomb, which he noticed was connected by a stone platform that ran between the two sites. This was the first mention of such a connecting platform—and a curious feature it is indeed. When the Royal Commission lads came here in May 1909 they also noted this connecting platform. They found that the cairn itself,
“does not appear to have been excavated. It is circular with a diameter of about 52ft and is some 10ft high to the top of the modern pile of stones on its apex. It presents a peculiar feature. At the north end is clearly visible a broad platform of stones extending to a distance of 25ft from the base of the cairn and, though largely overgrown with turf, traceable by the outline of stones almost entirely around it. This platform has been described as a neck connecting the two cairns (Fiscary 1 and 2, PB), but in reality it stops 7ft distant from the adjacent cairn.”
In strong gales at Fiscary 2Henshall’s plan of Fiscary 1 & 2
Indeed, this “platform” seems to have been either deliberately constructed with the hilltop cairn positioned on top of it, or has been set around the tomb. It’s difficult to say with any certainty without further excavation.
The great Audrey Henshall (1963; 1995) wrote extensively about this ancient monument in her works, finalizing her site entry in The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland (1995). After describing in some detail the obvious archaeological association this site has with Fiscary 1, she gave us a detailed description on this one and wrote:
“The larger south cairn (Fiscary 2, PB) is bare, steep-sided, and has been little disturbed. The diameters are between 19.5 to 21.5m, and the height is 5.5m measured from the NW. The edge is clear for about half of the circuit. The surrounding platform is quite low and is partly covered with peat and deep heather which in places obscure the edge. The platform varies in width from 4.8 to 7.3m. On the SE side the cairn edge is clear and there is no sign of the platform. It appears on the NE side where it is largely free of heather, and the cairn material merges into its stones. This part of the platform is edged by a rough kerb which fades away westwards into the spread of stones which links the two cairns. In the area between the cairns the stones are mainly covered by peat on which grow turf and heather. The spread of stones appears to be thin, but on the NW side of the cairn, where there is evidently a drop in ground level, breaks in the peat cover show that here the stone spread has considerable depth. Round the W side the platform is heather-covered, and along the SW part, where the hill drops away steeply, there is a rough kerb at a lower level than elsewhere, within which the surface of the platform rises to the base of the cairn. The S end of the platform, which here is bare stones, seems to turn sharply towards the S edge of the cairn, though the actual edge of the platform is indefinite.”
The likelihood is that this cairn is the oldest of the cluster of three found here, most likely constructed in the neolithic period. Its position in the landscape would indicate that the site would have been built to commemorate the spirit of a local tribal elder, a King or Queen. It’s a superb site and I’ll be visiting it again very soon indeed!
Folklore
Bouncy elven sprite flies by
The folklorist Otta Swire (1963) told that this region was once peopled by giants who created the landscape itself around here (a common attribute of giants the world over), and they also played a part in the creation of this and other giant tombs in the area. The one time local school-teacher at Bettyhill, Alan Temperley (1977), also told us that the fairy folk lived close to the giant tombs of Fiscary.
References:
Gourley, Robert, Sutherland: An Archaeological Guide, Birlinn: Edinburgh 1996.
Gunn, Adam & Mackay, John, Sutherland and the Reay Country, John Mackay: Glasgow 1893.
Henshall, Audrey S., The Chambered Tombs of Scotland – volume 1, Edinburgh University Press 1963.
Henshall, Audrey S., “The Distant Past,” in The Sutherland Book (edited by Donald Omand), Northern Times: Golspie 1991.
Henshall, Audrey S., The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland, Edinburgh University Press 1995.
o’ Reilly, Kevin & Crockford, Ashley, What to See Around Bettyhill, privately printed 2009.
Sutherland, George, Folk-lore Gleanings and Character Sketches from the Far North, John o’ Groats Journal: Wick 1937.
Temperley, Alan, Tales of the North Coast, Research Publishing Company: London 1977.
Acknowledgments: To the beautiful Aisha Domleo, for her images, bounce, spirit and madness – as well as getting me up to see this cluster of sites. And a Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of theNational Library of Scotland.
