Document record MAB49973 - GLENBURGIE

Extensive short cist Bronze Age cemetery revealed by quarrying in the 19th Century.

Extensive short cist Bronze Age cemetery revealed by quarrying in the 19th Century. Seven more cists were found 1914, but there is now no sign of any cists. MacFarlane, in about 1723, mentions stones and graves beside the King's Highway near Newmiln. The New Statistical Account records the discovery of several cists, none of which was covered by a cairn, the last in 1841, and this account was followed by the Ordnance Name Book except that, in error, the year 1848 was substituted for 1841. In this cist (known locally as 'The General's Grave' in 1913, according to Callander) was found an urn, 10 by 7 inches, and a jet necklace. Part of the urn and the triangular terminal plate of the necklace are in the Falconer Museum, Forres. Callander, who notes this as 'No.17 Dam of Burgie', quotes the Rev. D. Gordon of Birnie as saying that the necklace was broken up and its parts dispersed, only the Forres Museum's terminal plate surviving. Dr Gordon mentions that a detailed account of the find and a reconstruction drawing of the necklace was published in the Forres Gazette. Callander distinguishes between this necklace and another 'No.32 Newmill, Alves' in Elgin Museum consisting of eight beads, four plates and a triangular pendant. Murray mentions further cists found in 1843 and 1844, the last containing a skeleton, urn and beads (possibly on the authority of the Forres Gazette 7 April 1841) but Callander does not mention these. Between the end of July 1913 and the middle of April 1914 seven more cists were found. Detailed accounts were published in the local papers by the tenant of Burgie Lodge Farm, C. M. Bruce, and Callander visited the site and described the position of the cists. Two were found on a small round knoll 39 yards west southwest of 'The Fairy Stone' (a glacial erratic with traditional supernatural associations, NJ06SE0023), another on a gravel hillock 110 yards east southeast, while 150 yards southwest was a group of four cists on a northwest-southeast sandy ridge within 30 yards of each other. The northernmost cist, found in April 1914, contained a food vessel and had, for one of its side-slabs, a stone bearing markings made by sharpening stone axes. The next-but-one cist, 25 yards to the southeast, contained a skeleton, a food vessel and a jet necklace 'No.18 Burgie Lodge'. The urns and necklace were presented to Elgin Museum. A watching brief carried out by K Sabine in 1996 during groundworks for a new agricultural building north of Old School House at NJ0880660588 identified no features or artefacts of archaeological significance.

ORDNANCE SURVEY, 1871, Ordnance Name Book, No17(1870) 8 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1360.

GORDON, D, 1878, PSAS 12(1877-8) 298-300, 298-300 (Bibliographic reference). SAB601.

MITCHELL, A, 1908, MACFARLANES GEOG COLL 1906-8 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1155.

CALLANDER, JG, 1916, PSAS 50(1915-16) 201-40, 201-8,239-40 (Bibliographic reference). SAB212.

MURRAY, JG, 1930, BOOK OF BURGIE, 100-3 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1188.

Author unknown, n.d., FORRES GAZETTE, 07/04/1841 (Bibliographic reference). SAB523.

Author unknown, n.d., NSA, 1842,249 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1269.

Record last edited

Sep 8 2023 11:24AM