REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1902 271 



Appendix II. 

 Clacharie. By the Rev. Thomas Martin, M.A. 



In a field on the right hand side of the road which leads 

 to Blythe, a round cairn attracts the attention of visitors. 

 This was originally a small hillock or knowe, too stony to 

 be ploughed. It excited the interest of the late Lady John 

 Scott, of Spottiswoode, and in the early sixties she obtained 

 permission from the Earl of Lauderdale to explore the place. 

 She then discovered that it was an ancient British burial 

 ground. In the course of the exploration the workmen found, 

 in the centre of the knowe, an urn of great antiquity. The 

 urn was of baked clay, hand made and sun dried, and 

 ornamented round the edge by being pinched by the finger 

 and thumb while the clay was still soft. On the top of the 

 urn there was a flat stone, it was packed round about with 

 sand, and its contents were cremated bones. In a circle round 

 the urn there were some six cysts, composed of upright stones 

 in the form of a square, which also contained bones, but 

 unburnt. In one corner of the place there was found a lot of 

 ashes, which probably indicated the spot where the body had 

 been cremated previously to the remains being placed in the 

 urn. The urn was taken by Lady John Scott to Spottiswoode 

 House, and placed in her museum there. On her death it 

 went into the possession of Sir George Warrender, Bart. 



Lady John caused a memorial of this interesting discovery 

 to be erected. She took a piece of parchment and wrote on 

 it an account of the place and its contents, and this was signed 

 by herself and all engaged in the work of exploration. This 

 parchment, with a copy of the Kelso Mail and some coins — 

 a penny, a half-penny, and a farthing — were placed in a jar, 

 hermetically sealed, and buried along with the bones found 

 in the cysts. She then caused the stones to be piled up in 

 a cairn, which attracts the notice of the passers by, and keeps 

 fresh in the memory of the people the story of the discovery 

 of this wonderful ancient burying place. 



