Transactions. 63 



often in close proximity to a large and lofty cairn — g-reat numbers 

 of small cairns exist, averaging 3 ft. in height and 9 to 12 ft. in 

 diameter. These occur in scores, even in hundreds, frequently 

 very close together. What these maj- be is at present open to 

 conjecture. Out of many dozens which were opened at Aberlour, 

 under the supervision of Dr Joseph Anderson himself, one alone 

 contained evidences of interment. This one was, however, very 

 much better protected from the destructive agency of the atmos- 

 phere by having its stones well mixed with peaty soil ; therefore 

 the relics of the skeleton found were preserved. It is just 

 possible that the others, also, once contained interments, but being 

 more loosely covered with stones only, all the contents had 

 perished.! In this instance, as in those examined by Mr Robert 

 Service at Mitchellslacks, very slight structure was apparent — an 

 oblong slab horizontal at the base of the cairn, and surrounded, 

 but not built in, with large roundish stones. 



[In Chalmers' Caledonia there is mention made of the opjning of 

 several cairns, of which the following are the most important : A cairn 

 near Parton, opened in 1740, containing human bones in a stone coffin. One 

 near Gelstoun contained a stone coffin seven feet long, human bones, and a 

 brass helmet. Blackerne Cairn, opened in 1756, contained burnt bones, 

 human teeth, an amber bead, and a ring of silver, all presented to Soc. 

 Antiq. in 1782. Cairnwanie, opened in 1778, contained a stone coffin with 

 a skeleton, an urn, and an earthen pitcher. Another "very large cairn" 

 on Glenquicken Moor, opened about 1809, contained a lai'ge skeleton 

 with a green-stone axehead sticking in the left shoulder.] 



On coming to consider the actual structure of a cairn, we are, 

 as I have already hinted, hampered by the too obvious fact that no 

 well -described instance — with one solitary exception — of the 

 proper excavation of a cairn (in Galloway) is extant. All we can 

 now gather must be from the remains of the larger cairns, the 

 small stones of which have been so utterly removed as to leave 

 open to the storms the huge kistvaens which occupy the level of 

 the enclosed area. That there were marked differences not only 

 in the relative positions of the kisfcvaens, but also in the manner of 

 their surroundings, there can be little doubt. For instance, in the 

 two interments at Cairnholy and the one at Newton (all in the 

 same district), we find, in addition to the usual four-sided kist 

 with its lid-stone, tall stones erected at the corners. Compare 



+ See Pro. Soc. Antiq. Scot. Vol. xxv., p. 23. 



