Parkburn Cist Cemetery Cist View all content for Parkburn Cist Cemetery

From RCAHMS CANMORE; This long cist cemetery is situated on England's Hill, some 600m ENE of Parkburn. A large part of the cemetery has been destroyed by a sand and gravel quarry (now disused), but it probably extends into the strip of woodland immediately NW of the quarry, where cists were discovered in 1885. Excavation in advance of sand extraction in 1954 and 1956 revealed 111 cists, all of them aligned roughly ENE to WSW. Two principal groups of cists were identified, separated by a wall running from NE to SW along the crest of the hill; the S group comprised forty widely-spaced cists, most of them well-built with substantial slabs; the N group, which comprised fifty cists, the majority built of slighter stones, was more compact and there was evidence of disturbance and successive construction. The only finds from the cists were part of a jet armlet (RMS, FN 189), a small fragment of iron, possibly a knife blade (RMS, IA 49) and fragments of six rotary querns, three of them in re-use as cist slabs (RMS, BB 115-20). Since the excavations a further six long cists and a Bronze Age cist (see No. 26) have been discovered. One of the cists, which was found in 1962, was built of dressed stones of Roman date, including three arch voussoirs, probably removed from the bath-house of the Flavian fort at Elginhaugh (No. 102); the cist was aligned roughly NE-SW and there was a small sherd of Neolithic pottery (RMS, EO 983) in its fill.

Posted by Martin 12th May 2004ce

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