Glenquicken Cist

Nearest town:
Wigtown (8km WSW)
OS reference:
NX508582
OS sheet:
83
Latitude:
54° 53' 45.67 N
Longitude:
4° 19' 36.58 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Glenquicken Cist by postman

At least it stopped raining, if only for a few score of minutes.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Nov 11, 2014
Image of Glenquicken Cist by Howburn Digger

The fine stonework which makes up Glenquicken and Cambret’s dykes may be a clue as to where all the cairn material went...

Image credit: Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger Apr 14, 2012
Image of Glenquicken Cist by Howburn Digger

Looking West over the cist towards Knockeans Hill. Sunset on Friday 13th April 2012.

Image credit: Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger Apr 14, 2012

Articles

Glenquicken Cist

stubob
stubob Oct 22, 2003

Have to agree with Moey....the views back down onto the Glenquickan circle are great.
Beware of trying to shorten the journey back to the car park next to the bridge, the ground is very boggy....try it and you might get to sample the delights of trenchfoot.
The cist and its graffiti covered cap stone are worth seeing.....and it’s only a short walk from the circle.

Glenquicken Cist

moey
moey Apr 1, 2002

The Cist lies above Glenquickan Stone Circle roughly to the South West. It is close, but not visible from the circle. Watch out for the bog – you’ll get sucked in & never seen again.

I didn’t spot it the first time I visited Glenquickan, but it is easy to find as I found out this March. You get a great view of Glenquickan Circle from up there too.

This area has a wealth of Sites just waiting to be explored – I have to go back this summer.

Moey

Folklore

Glenquicken Cist
Cist
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 19, 2014

Understandably, Canmore won’t pin the first of these stories to this particular cist. But it might well be the culprit? The second, ‘Cairnywanie’, with its similarly noble skeleton, was at NX512584, but has all but disappeared.

About the year 1809, Mr McLean of Mark, while improving a field in the moor of Glenquicken, in Kirkmabreck parish, found it necessary to remove a very large cairn, which is said by tradition to have been the tomb of a king of Scotland, which is not in the genuine series, Aldus McGaldus, McGillus or McGill. When the cairn had been removed, the workmen came to a stone coffin of very rude workmanship; and on removing the lid, they found the skeleton of a man, of uncommon size; the bones were in such a state of decomposition that the ribs and vertebrae crumbled into dust, on attempting to lift them. The remaining bones being more compact, were taken out; when it was discovered that one of the arms had been almost separated from the shoulder by the stroke of a stone axe, and that a fragment of the axe still remained in the bone. The axe had been of green stone, a species of stone never found in this part of Scotland. There was also found with this skeleton a ball of flint, about three inches diameter, which was perfectly round, and highly polished, and the head of an arrow, that was also of flint; but not a particle of any metallic substance was found.
Mr Denniston of Creetown’s Letter to Mr. Train, of Newton Stewart, dated the 22d of October, 1819.

About the year 1778, in removing a quantity of stones for building dikes from a large tumulus in Glenquicken Moor, there was found a stone coffin, containing a human skeleton, which was greatly above the ordinary size. There was also found in this sepulchral monument an urn containing ashes, and an earthen pitcher. The urn seems to evince the antiquity of this tumulus, when the British practised funeral cremation. This tumulus is called Cairnywanie. Thus we have an account of two skeletons of very large size, found in Glenquicken Moor at different times. These facts seem to confirm the tradition that a battle had taken place here at some very remote period.

From the Statistical Account iv, p332 (browse under ‘Kirkmabreck’).

Sites within 20km of Glenquicken Cist

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