Transactions. 65 



grouse, thei'e are localities where two or more are placed in close 

 proximity. The High Lessons and Low Lessons cairns, the N. 

 and S. cairns at Cauldside, the E. and W. Cairns at Clachan Pluck, 

 are separated from each other by but a furlong. The two smallest 

 cairns on the Woodfield, Highbanks, are rather more than 150 

 yards from each other. At High Barcaple a space of only 31 

 yards intervenes between the north cairn (which is untouched) 

 and the south cairn, which has nothing to show but a huge kist- 

 cover resting on small granite boulders. Two cairns on Auchen- 

 gassel are only four or five yards apart ; the two cairns of Enrick, 

 near Gatehouse-on-Fleet, were raised on a fine conspicuous grassy 

 level hill-top ; while at Glaisters, in Kirkgunzeon, three cairn sites 

 can be traced in a remarkable arrangement, two being exactly 

 east and west of each other, and only 21 ft. apart, and the third 

 (a lai'ge oval cairn, by the way) lying north-west of the middle 

 one, the rim stones of each having a space of but 10 feet between 

 them. The height of the localities on which the cairns are placed 

 vary from the 2650 feet of the Carlin's Cairn, and the two cairns on 

 Cairnsmore o' Fleet shown i-espectively on the 2331 and 2152 foot 

 levels, down to that at Barnhourie Mill in Colvend, only 25 feet 

 above sea level. 



Nomenclature. — Certain points in the names of our cairns are 

 of interest. Several, of course, are purely Celtic in form and 

 signification, such as Cairn-avel, Cairn-derry, Cairn-wanie, Cairn- 

 holy, Cairn-tosh; others are known by personal names — e.g., 

 Pluckhim's Cairn, Coltart's Cairn, Douglas Cairn (on Criffel 

 summit), ; Cairn Edward, Peter's Cairn, Rorie Gill's Cairn, Cairn 

 Kinna, Sheuchan's Cairn, King's Cairn, and the Carlin's Cairn. A 

 still larger number are known simply by the names of the lands 

 upon which they are situated ; while the designation of a few 

 others depends on their colour. Of white cairns there are six, and 

 there is one black cairn. In addition to these are the names 

 Watch Cairn (on Ewanston Moor), the Mile Cairn (near Crofts 

 Moat), and the Meikle Cairn at Minnydow — the last almost imply- 

 ing that on the same farm there was once a Wee Cairn, now 

 invisible. 



The Antiquity of the Cairns. — On this topic, to many doubt- 

 less of the greatest interest, we cannot speak with certainty for 

 the following good reason : It is possible to have three or half-a- 

 dozen cairns as like each other as can be — all equally grey, time- 



