274 



On Ancient Stone Cists and Human Remains discovered 

 at Ay cliff e House, near Ay ton. 



In the second week of November, 1873, while some work- 

 men were employed in laying out and levelling the grounds 

 adjacent to Aycliffe House (a new mansion on the site of 

 what was formerly Millbank), situated about four hundred 

 yards above the junction of the river Eye with the Ale, on 

 the estate of Alexander Mitchell Innes, Esq., of Ayton 

 Castle, they discovered a number of stone-coffins or cists 

 containing skeletons, evidently those of ancient Britons of 

 a very early age. 



The cists were arranged parallel to each other, in a north 

 and south direction, in two rows, and were found at a depth 

 of from 15 inches to 4 feet, and from 4 to 6 feet apart. 

 There were no cairns or barrows. The graves had not been 

 formed, as is usual, on level ground, but on a steep bank 

 facing the south, which slopes to the river Eye. The bank 

 there slopes to the river at an angle of about 30° ; and these 

 graves formed two lines or rows — oblique to the slope of the 

 bank. This was so steep that the grave at the east or 

 lower extremity of one of the rows, was about eight feet 

 below the level of the graves at the other or upper end. 

 The stones forming the sides, ends, and tops of the graves 

 were of the rudest description. They were flat stones of 

 greywacke, or greywacke slate, such as might have been 

 obtained from the channel of the river, which runs at the 

 foot of the bank. There was one stone at the foot, and 

 another at the head, with three or four stones on the top. 

 But the stones did not fit closely to one another, in conse- 

 quence of which the graves, when opened, were much filled 

 with earth, and the bones much separated. In one case, 

 apparently, the bones had been disturbed, as if some one had 

 searched the graves. Towards the upper slope of the banks 

 the graves became more closely packed together, and seemed 

 to have been placed in their position without any fixed 

 order, as some of the skeletons lay with their heads to the 

 north, others with their heads to the south. When Mr. 

 Milne Home visited the place, only eight graves had been 

 laid bare, but subsequently twelve was the number disin- 

 terred. In seven of those graves the skull was at the south 

 end ; in the eighth the skull was at the north end. The row 

 consisting of eight occupied a space about ten yards long by 

 two yards wide. 



