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Seacliff

Burial (Period Unassigned), Cist(S) (Period Unassigned), Midden (Period Unassigned), Settlement (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Seacliff

Classification Burial (Period Unassigned), Cist(S) (Period Unassigned), Midden (Period Unassigned), Settlement (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 57871

Site Number NT68SW 8

NGR NT 6123 8428

NGR Description Centred NT 6123 8428

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/57871

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council East Lothian
  • Parish Whitekirk And Tyninghame
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District East Lothian
  • Former County East Lothian

Archaeology Notes

NT68SW 8 centred 6123 8428.

(Approx NT 611 843) Two vertical lines have apparently been cut into a projecting rock 300 yds S of the promontory at Seacliff, in a range of perpendicular crags.

Beneath the sand below them was 'a mass of black earth mixed with the bones of animals, charred wood, limpet shells, and pieces of earthen ware jars, similar to the fragments which were found in the cave (NT68SW 7) both in shape, materials and manufacture'. The deposit was 4ft thick below the marks in the rock and gradually diminished to a point 30ft down the bank, where it disappeared.

G Sligo 1857

This deposit of black earth was not located, nor was any seen in the vicinity. It is probable that the two vertical lines cut into a projecting rock have now disappeared due to sea-erosion.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 13 November 1962

In the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) are bones said to come from 'long cists 100 yds NW of Seacliff Tower', donated by Mr Aitchison, 46 Sprinfield, West Barns, Dunbar (information from J Close-Brooks, NMAS).

The site was visited in company with Mr Aitchison on 20th September 1975. He states that he found the skeleton about 1962; he could not be sure of the attitude of the body - it was either doubled up or disturbed, but not extended. Two erect slabs were visible, like the side-slabs of a cist. (These now seem to have eroded out).

The locality was quite accurately pinpointed to NT 6123 8428, about 200 yds NW of Seacliff Tower and directly opposite

the Car Rocks. An area between two rocky bluffs is filled with a raised beach deposit overlain by dune sand. The face of the raised beach is eroding fairly rapidly and the top edge is difficult of access. Above the raised beach are areas of

rough stone slabbing or paving. On top of the paving is a slight kitchen midden deposit with shells and animal bone. This

deposit is covered by blown sand.

A 4 foot thick midden was noted in 1857. Also in this area (in 1962 and c 1987) two cists with human remains was found. Coastal erosion has recently revealed a crouched inhumation within a partially slab built cist. This was excavated in 1990. There was no evidence for any other cists in this area or of the midden during this survey.

Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 26th February 1996.

Some 20 or 30 yds further NW along the cliff, bones were seen sticking out of an eroding face, about 10ft above the present boulder-beach.

With difficulty a human patella was retreived. As far as could be seen, the human bones lay under the rough paving. There is at present no visible sign of cists, although Mr Aitchison was fairly insistent that the site was 'a cist cemetery'. (See also NT68SW 3, NT68SW 7, NT68SW 12. )

H C Nisbet TS 1975

Continuing coastal erosion has revealed another burial associated with indeterminate stone structures surviving 1m high. The burial appears to be a crouched inhumation in a partially slab-built cist. It is only 4m south of the site of another crouched inhumation in a cist which was destroyed by erosion in c.1987 (local informant).

Sponsor: HBM

S Carter 1990d.

Scheduled as Seacliff, settlement and cists.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling docuemnt dated 25 September 2000.

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