PARISH OF ROTHBURY. 429 



on which are the remains of several cairns and barrows, together 

 with a rock showing- circular markings now nearly effaced. I 

 opened two grave-hills out of a group of three, placed nearly 

 together in rather an unusual position, in a hollow between the 

 hills. 



CCVI. The first was 34 ft. in diameter, 3 ft. high, and was 

 constructed entirely of stones. At the centre was a cist, the cover 

 of which was placed 10 in. below the level of the ground. It lay 

 north and south, and was 3 ft. 2 in. long, 2 ft. 2 in. wide, and 2 ft. 

 deep. The cist had but three side-stones, the north end of it 

 having been formed simply by the side of the cutting made into the 

 earth. The body (that of a full-grown person) which had once 

 occupied it had gone almost entirely to decay, nothing being left 

 beyond the middle portion of the right femur. Within the cist 

 were some pieces of charcoal and of burnt stone, and both above 

 and around it was a considerable quantity of charcoal with a few 

 burnt stones. One foot and a-half south of the edge of the cover- 

 stone of the cist were the remains of the burnt body of an adult 

 of uncertain sex, laid on the level of the natural surface, but having 

 below them a hollow 13 in. in diameter and 14 in. deep, which was 

 filled in with burnt earth. The body had been burnt on the spot, 

 and charcoal in large quantities was found above the bones, with a 

 flat stone over all. 



CCVII. The second cairn had a circle of eight stones (the inner 

 diameter of which was 14 ft.) round the base. The greater part 

 of the mound of stones, if such a structure had originally filled the 

 space within the circle, had been removed many years ago, but 

 without disturbance of the place of interment. This was found at 

 the centre where, in a hollow, 1 J ft. in diameter and If ft. deep, 

 was a deposit of burnt bones, those of a person in middle life, with 

 some pieces of charcoal amongst them. It is open to doubt if the 

 space within the circle had ever been more completely filled up with 

 stones than was found to be the case at the time of the opening ; and 

 it is certainly possible that no cairn had ever existed, and that the 

 sepulchral place had been marked by merely a circle of large stones, 

 with a few smaller ones laid on the surface. It is difficult to 

 account for the destruction of the cairn, if one had ever been 

 erected, for there was near the spot (not a very accessible one) no 

 wall in the building of which the stones composing it could 



