Building record MAB39210 - GLEN WOOD, THREE LAWS

Remains of cairn or barrow cemetery, shown on the OS maps from the 1st edition map onwards.

Remains of cairn or barrow cemetery, shown on the OS maps from the 1st edition map onwards. The 'Laws of Logie' were three mounds, apparently at the points of a triangle, two of which had been dug into for sand and gravel and recently enclosed in a plantation by 1793. From the description in the OSA, the first contained a cist with a complete skeleton, of 'extraordinary size' but brittle to the touch. The second contained four human skeletons, the account only mentions that they were also large and were deposited circa 0.33m from the surface at that time. Close to it was found 'a beautiful ring, supposed to be of ebony, as black as jet, of a fine polish and in perfect preservation'. This, probably a bracelet, possibly of jet, was in the custody of the minister in 1793, but is now lost. It was circular, flat on the inside and rounded without. Its dimensions were: circumference circa 30cm, diameter circa 10cm, the rim was, in the middle, more than 1.27cm, and its greatest breadth was circa 3.8cm, diminishing in gradual proportion to circa 0.65cm. Also, at a depth of circa 1.22m, a probable cinerary urn lying on its side. The account also records cryptically 'There were likewise discovered in the same place several cavities, near 6 feet from the surface'. The third and largest of the three Laws was not quarried in the eighteenth century. It is a circular low mound separated by a wide berm from an encircling ditch with an outer bank, described as 'near circular, with a sort of fosse round it, filled up with round stones, intermingled with pieces of glass.' When visited by the OS in 1958 the sites of the two quarried mounds (B and C) were occupied by old gravel pits, which appear to be shown on the 19th century OS maps. The OS considered the third (A), lying a little to the north of the pits and on the summit of rising ground, as a possible saucer-cairn. The surveying was difficult because of dense undergrowth and fallen trees. Described as a circular enclosure very slightly raised in the centre, and surrounded by a shallow ditch and outer bank of earth and stones 36m in diameter. The bank was 3.8m broad and generally 0.7m high except on the southwest where it was 1.2m high as the ground dips into a slight hollow. The ditch was 3.2m wide and 0.3m deep. When revisited by the OS in 1971, the surviving mound was in poor condition. It had recently been cleared of trees and scrub and mutilated by bulldozers crossing it. It was resurveyed and described again as a saucer-cairn, but with Wessex affinities. The fairly level circular area had a slight internal rise, was circa 20.0m in diameter and featureless, except for a mutilation in the north arc where a hole had been dug in the ditch to reveal the rubble infill mentioned in the OSA. The interior was probed and revealed to have considerable stone content. Separating the mound from the ditch was a berm 3.5m wide. The ditch, circa 2.0m wide, had an average depth of 0.4m. The outer bank, of rubble stones, was circa 3.5m wide at the rim and of average height of 0.4m. The bank was best preserved in the northern arc. No entrance was observed.

, (Photograph). SAB28465.

OSA, 1791-9, [Untitled], Vol. 951-2 (Bibliographic reference). SAB9603.

Coutts, H, 1970, [Untitled], 11 (Bibliographic reference). SAB11187.

RCAHMS, 1978, [Untitled], 9, No. 22 (Bibliographic reference). SAB7856.

AHLERS, M, 2014, HAZLENUTS AND BURIAL MOUNDS: THE EARLY PREHISTORY AT THE MONTROSE BASIN AND ITS CONTEXT WITHIN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND (Bibliographic reference). SAB5532.

Record last edited

Jun 22 2021 12:30PM