Site type LONG CAIRN
Canmore ID 17324
Site Number NJ44SE 7
NGR NJ 4534 4140
Council ABERDEENSHIRE
Parish GLASS
Former Region GRAMPIAN
Former District GORDON
Former County ABERDEENSHIRE

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Archaeological Notes

NJ44SE 7 4534 4140.

(NJ 4534 4140 and NJ 4537 4132) Cairns (NR)
(See also NJ44SE 8)
OS 6" map 1959.

A long horned cairn 108' long, oriented E-W across the ridge of Newton Hill. It is 50' wide across the E end, where it is 5 - 6' high but the horns project obliquely to give a maximum width of about 65' and edge a forecourt apparently 10' deep. The W, and lower, end is about 30' wide. Two cuttings have been made into the E end, but neither revealed any stone structure within the cairn. Although named Cairnborrow by Henshall (Henshall 1963), the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB, 1871) states that the cairn does not bear a distinctive name.
Name Book 1871; A S Henshall 1963.

A long horned cairn as described and planned by Henshall. No name is known locally for the cairn in particular, though the area as a whole is called Cairnborrow.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (ISS) 28 November 1972.

This long cairn is situated on the rounded crest of Newton Hill. The cairn is not set on the summit of the hill, however, but lies on the gentle N slope, with its broad end on the crest and its narrower end extending down the slope to the W. Overall it measures 35m in length and tapers from 19m across the horns at the E end to 9.5m on the W, and the height of the mound decreases correspondingly from 1.8m to 0.6m.
One trench has been driven down the axis of the cairn from the forecourt, a second along the central section of the N side and a third across the axis of the cairn about 10m from the W end. These excavations, described by Henshall as unfinished (1963, 392) are apparently unpublished. The setting of the cairn suggests that its builders intended that the E end should be on the skyline when viewed from the valley of the River Deveron to the E.
Visited by RCAHMS (SH) 22 March 1990.

Henshall, A S (1963a) The chambered tombs of Scotland,, vol.1 Edinburgh
Page(s): 392, No. 2 plan Held at RCAHMS E.7.1.HEN

Ordnance Survey (Name Book) Object Name Books of the Ordnance Survey (6 inch and 1/2500 scale)
Page(s): Book No. 37, 38 Held at RCAHMS Ref