430 NORTHUMBERLAND. 



have been used, and it miglit have been expected that any one 

 taking- away the stones of the cairn would also have removed the 

 stones of the circle. Burials have certainly been found placed within 

 circles, of one kind or another, where no mound had, apparently, 

 ever been raised over them. 



On the south side of the Coquet, almost opposite to the village of 

 Rothbury, and occupying the top of a hill which forms an outlying- 

 member of Simonside, is the camp of Lordenshaws, an early 

 entrenched place of an irregular oval form, with mounds and ditches 

 surrounding it, and having within it the remains of hut circles, 

 the foundations of the dwelling-places of the old occupiers of the 

 camp. In close proximity, and apparently connected with the 

 camp, are some curious walls and mounds, of a character not easy 

 to determine. Three lines of stones, placed apart, are still to be 

 seen, which (although the stones composing them are but of small 

 size) appear to be representatives of the megalithic linear structures 

 found elsewhere, and of which the lines of Carnac are the grandest 

 and best known examples. Several rocks marked with pits and 

 circles, connected in many instances by grooves, are in the 

 immediate vicinity of the camp ; and below, on the sloping hill- 

 side, at a place called Burgh Hill, are some cairns, two of which, 

 being still undisturbed, were examined. 



CCVIII. The first was 32 ft. in diameter and 5 ft. high. At the 

 centre a cist was met with, lying almost due east and west, the 

 slight variation from that direction being to north and south. It 

 was 3 ft. 8 in. long, 1 ft. 10 in. wide, and 2 ft. 3 in. deep, formed of 

 four side-stones and a large cover, the original surface of the ground 

 constituting the bottom. It contained nothing whatever, the body 

 once deposited therein having gone entirely to decay. 



CCIX. The second, which was within 20 yds. of the former one, 

 was 26 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. high. At the centre was a cist, 

 which lay east-north-east by west-south-west, and was 2 ft. 8 in. 

 long, 1 ft. 8 in. wide, and li ft. deep, the bottom, as in the former 

 case, being formed by the natural surface of the ground. It was 

 made with four side-stones and a cover (3 ft. long by 2J ft. wide), 

 upon which was laid a smaller flagstone. The cist was completely 

 filled in with fine sand. No trace of bone was discovered, the 

 body having totally gone to decay; but amongst the sand was 

 a little charcoal together with two small pieces of pottery. 



