Parkburn Cist Cemetery

Friday 16/4/04
In front of me hangs a menacing bible-black sky, to the left, the Edinburgh City Bypass and to the right a landfill site. I follow the line of the pylons until it opens to a golf course. Heading up a small hill I am soon hidden by trees and following the arrow on my trusty GPS. The hill soon becomes a tangle of trees and bushes and it’s a bit of a scramble through it all. Somewhere in here are the remains of 111 cists, at least one of which was built with a cup and ring marked stone and many contained Neolithic and Iron Age remains. The GPS tells me I’m on the site, but there is nothing on the ground I am standing on. I explore further as the site once stretched along the ridge of the hill. Unfortunately, a quarry has destroyed the SE section. It looks like the remainder has disappeared under the tree growth. I do, however, find rectangular indentations running approximately NE/SW- one of the few remaining graves? A mostly destroyed site unfortunately. Most remains have gone, no cup and ring marks and very little ground evidence.