Building record MAB20520 - WEST HATTON

Long cairn which lies on a slight ridge on the south western slope of Cloghill, Wester Hatton.

Long cairn which lies on a slight ridge on the south western slope of Cloghill, Wester Hatton. The cairn is located roughly 320 to the south of Long Cairn Farm. Callander reported in 1925 that the cairn at Cloghill had been heavily robbed, and all that remained were two mounds of stone rising to 9 feet above the base. It appeared that the stone was removed to build dykes around the field from the ends and from a cut through the centre of the cairn. The Old Statistical Account (1793) recorded the length as 108 feet (32.9m), but by the time of Callander's report it was likely that field stone had been added since 1793. At the time of its scheduling as an Ancient Monument in 1935, Long Cairn measured 170 feet (51.8m) from east to west and had a maximum breadth from south to north of 38 feet (11.6m). Callander also suggests the possibility that there was once a cist found in the cairn, and that the slabs were reused to make a watering place for animals. However no sign of this was visible during his visit. So few excavations have been carried out on long cairns that it is not possible to say if all of them contain burial chambers. Cairns are among the earliest monuments left in the North East of Scotland built during the Neolithic and Bronze age. Long cairns, like round cairns, were usually built in conspicuous locations, where views can be obtained, often of considerable distances in particular directions along valleys or across the sea. This is the only long cairn surviving in Aberdeen.

AAS/GR/77/CT21, AAS/GR/77/CT21 (Ground Photograph). SAB36673.

CALLANDER, JG, 1925, LONG CAIRNS AND OTHER PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS IN ABERDEENSHIRE AND BANFFSHIRE. IN: PSAS 59 (1924-5) 21-8 , p21-2, Plate 3 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2310.

HENSHALL, AS, 1963, CHAMBERED TOMBS OF SCOT 1, p. 396 (Bibliographic reference). SAB724.

Record last edited

Feb 15 2024 10:31AM