Field Meetings. 355 



valley, particularly on the farm of Townhead of Closeburn, 

 where hundreds have been noted ; and on the adjoining farm 

 of Auchencairn, where also are sexeral cairns of much larger 

 dimensions. In the upper part of the parish of Dunscore over 

 twenty of the small cairns are scattered over the face of Bogrie 

 Hill ; and separated from it by a ravine are ten or a dozen more, 

 on a hill known as Knockoure, on the farm of Sundaywell. 

 On the Glencairn side of the same hill, on the farm of Castle- 

 hill, five such small cairns occur in a group, and a solitary 

 one is to be seen among the remains of a series of stone dykes 

 and small dry-stone dwellings that indicate the existence of a 

 colony of small la.ndholders at a period much nearer to our 

 own. On the neighbouring farm of Girharrow, also in Glen- 

 cairn parish, are something like a hundred, and over the 

 Stewartrv border large numbers are found on Monybuie and 

 on Glaisters, Mr M'Connel's propertv in Corsock. In the 

 district are several camps. Bogrie hill shews examples both 

 of the rectilinear and the round ; there is another at Craigmuie ; 

 and Loch Urr, with its crannog as a fortified place of retreat 

 in times of stress, is in the heart of the region. These cairns 

 are as a rule verv inconspicuous objects. Turf has formed 

 about them — excavations at Townhead showed an accumula- 

 tion of a foot and a half of turf — hiding the lower courses, 

 and they are rarely so much as three feet above the surface 

 of the ground. One on Castlehill we noted as upstanding 

 three feet and a half ; but more commonly the height is not 

 more than two feet ; and they are generally obscured by an 

 overgrowth of heather or grass. In some cases where they 

 are low and comparatively bare a resemblance is suggested to 

 stone bottoming for a corn rick. As a rule they are roughly 

 circular and about twenty feet in diameter ; but both in shape 

 and size there are considerable variations. The largest one 

 observed in Craigdarroch has a diameter of 32 feet. A num- 

 ber are of irregular oval shape, several of these measuring 

 fifteen feet in length and nine feet across the broadest part. 

 Fortv have been counted on the part of the farm visited, and 

 others exist further to the south. 



The sepulchral nature of these cairns has been sufficiently 

 established, A number on Townhead were opened a good 



