Cairnpapple is without doubt one of the most important ancient sites in the Lothians, and, indeed, in Scotland as a whole. It has been in use as a primary religious centre since the early Neolithic era, around 3500 BC, and seems to indicate sporadically continued use through the Bronze and Iron Ages up into the early Christian period - a total of some 4000 years. The only major excavation at Cairnpapple was carried out in 1947 and 1948 by Stuart Piggot, whose position on the site remains canonical,[1] although his findings have been reinterpreted by Gordon Barclay in 1998,[2] mainly to revise them to account for current archaeological theories of dating, and to collate other revisions of Piggott's original interpretation.
Cairnpapple, Looking South-east, Showing the Cairn 2 Reconstruction and the Kerb of Cairn 3
Cairnpapple is located North of Bathgate, and South of Linlithgow, within the Hilderston Hills area of the Bathgate Hills, and, being one of the highest points in the central Lowlands (c.1000 feet), commands extensive views across Lothian, Eastern Strathclyde, Fife and Stirlingshire. Indeed, on a clear day, it is possible to see from one coast to the other, as far as the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth to Goat Fell on the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde.
Cairnpapple from the Air, Looking North-north-west
Photograph copyright © 2004 by James Gentles
Cairnpapple was clearly of central importance for an extended period of time, and in the area around it, we find solitary standing stones such as those at Galabraes, Gormyre and Knockhill, as well as the medieval Christian cross-slab at Witchcraig known as the Refuge Stane, and the Celtic cross halfway between there and Cairnpapple at Craigmailing.
In addition, Cairnpapple is almost circled from the North-west to the South-east by a series of hillforts from the Torphichen Hills to Bowden Hill, Cockleroy, Peace Knowe, and Dechmont Law.
Evidence of local domestic settlement is also plentiful, the closest habitations being the agricultural and residential sites in the Torphichen Hills, the crannog in Loch Cote on the Southern side of Bowden Hill, and the evidence of early farming below the Binny Craig and at Galabraes.
More immediately, a standing stone once stood on the Eastern slopes of Cairnpapple Hill itself, by Wester Tartraven Farm, and was probably an outlier for Cairnpapple's own circle. Two further possible sites also exist on the Western side of Cairnpapple Hill, one being a barrow, and the other a ring-ditch. It is possible that these two sites are directly linked to that on the hill's summit, and, along with the Tartraven Stone, create a much larger ritual complex across the whole hill than is normally realised.
It is clear, then, that throughout its long history, Cairnpapple is far from isolated in its local landscape, and the site seems to have been chosen deliberately for its central location, commanding extensive views across many other, presumably related, prehistoric sites. Click here for a location map provided by StreetMap.
The earliest known spelling of the placename is Kernepopple (1619), and the authenticity of this form is confirmed by the continuing traditional local pronunciation of Cairniepapple. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a lesser-known form, "Cairn Naple" or "Cairn-naple", exists in several publications[3], and given its use by two parish ministers in the Statistical Accounts of Scotland at this time, we could also accept this form as traditional. However, assuming the more prevalent form as normative (according as it does with both modern usage and the first known written form), we can split the placename into three elements: (1) cairn-; (2) -ie-; (3) -papple. The first two elements are easily explained through Celtic roots.
(1) cairn-
Modern English cairn derives from medieval Scots cairn (pile of stones), which in turn derives from older words in both British and Irish branches of the Celtic languages:
Welsh: carn = cairn
Gaelic: càrn / càirn = cairn, barrow, rocky hill, rock
(2) -ie-
A common Scotticisation of Celtic words meaning "the", "of" or "of the":
Welsh: y or yr = the, of, of the
Gaelic: a' (short for an) = the, of, of the
The third element, -papple is rather more problematic. According to Stuart Piggott, it is an Anglo-Saxon word, papel, meaning "a cairn of loose stones or pebbles".[4] However, it is surely more likely that this element also derives from a Celtic root, not least since the first two elements are so easily explained as Celtic, and several possibilities exist:
(3) -papple
Welsh: pabell = tent, pavilion
Welsh: pobl = people
Old Welsh: pubell = eye
Gaelic: puball = tent
Gaelic: pobull = people, congregation
So, if we assume that all three elements of the placename have Celtic roots, "Cairn(ie)papple" could mean something along the lines of "Cairn of the Tents", "Cairn of the People", or "Cairn of the Eye". This latter interpretation seems most appealing, given the eye-like shape of the oval henge, and also the line-of-sight afforded from the summit to so many other local prehistoric sites. No doubt, though, other possible derivations also exist, and ultimately, it is impossible to say for sure which is the true meaning of the third element, papple, although with its final consonant -le, a Brythonic (Old Welsh) -ll root seems likely. Moreover, if the root was Gaelic, the central -ie- element as a' would require the aspiration of the following consonant, as ph-, and since this aspiration is not apparently present, a Brythonic root can be considered the most likely. If so, then the placename would have originated prior to the Northumbrian Anglian expansion into Lothian around 638AD, and would come from the period when the region was known as Gododdin, which was also the name of the Brythonic tribe who lived here, known to the Romans as the Votadini, and whose heroic demise was commemmorated in Aneirin's seventh century poem, Y Gododdin.
According to Piggott, Cairnpapple may also have been known to the Romans as Medionemeton ("Middle Sanctuary"),[5] as given in the seventh/eighth century Ravenna Cosmography as a temple in the Forth-Clyde region.[6] However, tempting (and likely) as this possibility may be, it is, again, impossible to completely verify, and other sites have been suggested, not least those along the Antonine Wall such as Croy Hill and Bar Hill, although these are in fact the sites of Roman forts, and are unlikely to deserve the appellation nemeton, which specifically signifies a Celtic sacred grove, normally associated with druidism. Indeed, the Latin term nemeton is itself a Celtic word in origin which can be found in placenames from Galatia in modern Turkey, across all of Gaul, to Britain and Ireland in the Atlantic West. In Old Irish, its equivalent was nemed, meaning "sacred", "noble", or, more pertinently, "a sacred place",[7] with fidnemed referring directly to a shrine in a forest.[8]
Two features of the site are worth noting at the outset, since they affect various aspects of the archaeological finds from all periods, and the possible interpretations which can be given to them.
Firstly, the topsoil on the summit of Cairnpapple is generally rather thin, with the result that many of the archaeological features such as post-holes, pits, graves, and even a section of the henge ditch, were necessarily cut into the bedrock itself. This has the fortunate effect of making many of these features easily and incontravertably identifiable on excavation.
Secondly, the soil is also rather acidic, resulting in the problem that most of the organic contents of the pits and graves have literally dissolved across the millennia, making it difficult to be precise about certain specific details of some features. Given that the excavation took place in the late 1940s, much of the evidence which would today be available to archaeological science was, therefore, not available to the original excavation team, although Piggott's interpretation of many finds was practically virtuosic given the state of the science at that point in time, and his insights are invaluable to our understanding of the site.
The first archaeologically evident period of activity at Cairnpapple is now dated at around 3500 BC (although Piggott's original dating, in line with the prevailing theories of his time, was around 2000 BC). Here, we have signs of several oak and hazel fires and hearths, which are generally ascribed to a ritual function but which could, alternatively, indicate an initial domestic occupation. Their composition suggests that the hill may have originally been covered with a forest consisting primarily of oak and hazel (in keeping with what we know of the rest of South-east Scotland at this time), and certainly, the later wooden artefacts recovered from the North Grave (see below) are all of oak, presumably local. Today, many oak trees can still be found, particularly in the woods on the Northern side of the hill:
A Modern Cairnpapple Oak
If the hill was indeed covered by such a forest, it seems likely that it was during this early phase of use that the summit was initially cleared in order to establish the basis for the later ritual henge site.
A handful of small artefacts also exist from this period, including small pottery fragments. However, the most significant finds are two stone axes made at the recognised Neolithic axe factories of Graig Lwyd at Penmaenmawr (Gwynedd, North Wales) and either Stake Pass or Pike o' Stickle in Great Langdale (Cumbria, North-west England).
The Welsh and Cumbrian Axe-heads
It is sometimes suggested that these two axes may have been used in the clearing of the conjectured forest on the summit, but it is also possible that they are prestige objects rather than practical tools, perhaps gifted between tribes as part of a treaty or pact, or even as dowry in a significant marriage between nobles. They may even have had some form of ritual status per se. The argument for their being prestige objects is strengthened by the fact that, while many other axeheads from the Graig Lwyd factory have been found throughout Southern and middle Britain, that from Cairnpapple is, to date, the only one found in Scotland.
A further stone axe was also found on the Southern side of Cairnpapple in the nineteenth century, although less is known about its provenance, and the stone may be more local than the two found immediately on-site.
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The Stone Axe-Head |
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According to Piggott's chronology for the site, the first architectural structure at Cairnpapple is likely to have been a squarish setting of three stones (disputed by Barclay), open to the East, towards an "irregular arc" of seven rock-cut pits, with the stone setting approximately central to the arc if it were extended into a full circle. In the modern reconstruction of the site, only six of the seven pits are indicated, with the seventh being located, in Piggott's excavation plan, between his pits G and E, approximately beneath the kerb of the final cairn (see below).
The Reconstructed Pit-Arc (Only Six of the Seven Pits)
Unfortunately, given that the stone setting was found to have existed beneath what later became the Western end of the North Grave (see below), it has not been possible to reconstruct it. However, Piggott suggested that this feature constitutes what, at other henge and circle monuments, is often called a cove (following William Stukeley's work in the eighteenth century), and, indeed, several other examples of three-stone cove settings still exist to this day, not least at sites such as Avebury (Wiltshire), Stanton Drew (Somerset), and Arbor Low (Derbyshire), all in England. According to Piggot, the Cairnpapple Cove and Pit-Arc structure possibly predates the circle of uprights, and even the henge itself (see below), giving a date-range at some point in the Neolithic prior to 3000BC. Certainly, given that the cove is not central to the henge structure, this would seem to make sense.
Piggott could not say for sure if the seven pits originally contained uprights of either stone or wood, although he did note their similarity in dimension and shape to the later post-holes for the circle, which clearly did hold uprights. Furthermore, several of them appeared to contain packing-stones suggestive of the kind often found as the foundations for timber posts or standing-stones. However, he also cautioned that similar pits have been found on other sites which clearly did not contain uprights. If the latter was the case, then they may simply have functioned as ritual pits of some kind. Nonetheless, the likelihood of them being votive pits is low, given the almost complete absence of ritual deposits recovered from them (soil-acidity notwithstanding).
The main apparent content of these pits was a small amount of cremated human bone found either in the pits themselves, their walls, or immediately adjacent to them. Intriguingly, though, none of these deposits contained enough material to constitute the remains of a full human skeleton. Unfortunately, archaeological science was not developed enough in the late 1940s to determine whether each cremation fragment was from the same body, or if several bodies had been used in this way. Five other partial cremations were also found around the pits, roughly following the line of the "irregular arc".
It is possible that what we have here is some form of sanctification of the pits by the placing of these remains in or beside them. A familiar analogy may be the early Christian veneration of saints' relics, by which, for example, Durham Cathedral gains some of its sanctity by being the location of the alleged skeletal remains of Saint Cuthbert. On a purely conjectural level, could we be looking at the sacred relics of, for example, one or more local high priests, nobles or warriors being used to sanctify this structure?
In addition to the human remains associated with these seven pits, Piggott's team also recovered the apparently burnt fragments two small bone pins made of deer antler. Similar antler pins have also been found associated with human cremations at sites such as Stonehenge and Dorchester-on-Thames in England, and so the Cairnpapple finds seem to fit into a recognised Neolithic pattern for cremations.
On a further conjectural level, although professional archaeology generally fights shy of astronomical functions for such structures, we have uncovered an intriguing possibility regarding solar alignments within the Cove and Pit-Arc. The following describes how this structure might have been set out to indicate key times of the year, making, in effect, a calendrical device or solar observatory.
If an observer were to position themselves at the cove and look out across a given pit, they could look towards the horizon and, at the right time of year, view the sunrise in that direction. Our alignments from the cove to the various pits are derived from Piggott's site plan and are based on an arbitrary centre point situated amongst the stones of the cove, with the centres of the pits as drawn by Piggott. If the pits once contained stones or timber posts, then the actual lines of view may have differed slightly from those given. Looking Eastwards from the cove, viewing from left-to-right, the derived alignments are:
Pit G - Summer Solstice (Midsummer's Day)
Pit F - Bealltuinn & Lùnasdal (Beltane / May Day & Lammas)
Pit E - ? ? ? (April 15th & August 30th)
Pit D - Vernal Equinox & Autumnal Equinox
Pit C - ? ? ? (March 5th & October 11th)
Pit B - Samhuinn & Imbolc / Oimelc (Halloween / All Saints & St. Bride's / Candlemas)
Pit A - Winter Solstice (Midwinter's Day / Yule)
Following these calculations and Piggott's original excavation plans, we can plot the Cove and Pit-Arc functionally thus:
The Cairnpapple Cove and Pit-Arc - A Neolithic Solar Observatory?
The alignments for pits C and E are problematic. They don't align to a celestially significant event like a solstice or equinox, and there don't appear to be known ancient British festivals which coincide with the dates of their sunrises. It may be the case that pits C and E are indicators that key events are approaching. For example, sunrise over pit E occurs about 3 weeks before that over pit F (Bealltuinn). By commencing observation when the sun rises over pit E, one can then be sure that the next full moon will be the one appropriate to Bealltuinn.
The question of what pits C and E might indicate is particularly intriguing in light of the fact that the other five pits appear to coincide with known festivals still celebrated in one form or another to this day. It may be that the two ambiguous pits indicate previously unknown festivals, but which were integral parts of the Neolithic calendar. Unfortunately, of course, we have no written record of any Neolithic calendar, and even the famous Coligny Calendar, a fragmentary text from near Lyons in Celtic Gaul dating to the late first century BC, is of little help here, being apparently based on rough groupings of two modern months, rather than giving us specific dates within single months. Nonetheless, it would appear that if the Cove and Pit-Arc structure did exist, then Cairnpapple provides us with a fuller British Neolithic calendar than was previously known.
Following the possible Cove and Pit-Arc, the next major structure identified at Cairnpapple is the circle-henge, which is now thought to date from around 3000 BC. It should be noted that, in technical archaeological discourse, a henge is not a stone circle, but simply a circular or oval ditch with an external bank, often with a flat area between them, known as a berm. Many henges also have a circle of uprights, either stone or wood, within their ditches, and such henges are known as circle-henges. A further technical point is that a Class I henge has a single entrance, while a Class II henge has two entrances. At Cairnpapple, we have an oval henge with a berm between the ditch and bank, two entrances (roughly North and South), and a circle of uprights inside the henge. Thus, this monument can be fully classified as a Class II Circle-Henge.
The Eastern End of the Henge-Ditch (Looking North)
As can be seen from the 1856 Ordnance Survey map of the area, prior to excavation, the main visible feature at Cairnpapple was the henge ditch, and this often led to the assumption that the monument was in fact a hillfort. Note also the circular, rather than oval shape attributed to the henge. It seems, though, that the Western remains of the later cairn area (see below) are also indicated, although not attributed any specific significance:
Ordnance Survey Map, 1856
Yet the interpretation of the monument as a hillfort was not entirely irrational. In fact, it is rather rare to find either a henge or a circle at the summit of a hill, and most are located on flat plains or in river valleys. In addition, it should be noted that several of the hills in the immediate area of Cairnpapple have authenticated hillforts on their summits, not least the large military complexes on top of Bowden Hill and Cockleroy. However, one simple feature distinguishes the types of circular or oval ditches found in all henge monuments and some hillforts. While digging the ditch, the builders can obviously throw the extracted material in one of two directions in order to build the bank - either inside or outside of the ditch. In all henge monuments which have a bank, it is constructed outside the ditch. Clearly, in a hillfort structure, this would be military suicide, since it would mean that the defenders inside the structure would be lower in height than any attackers coming into the structure. In the case of hillforts, then, the banks are built inside the ditch, forcing any attacker to be at a lower height than defenders using the bank as a defensive wall. At Cairnpapple, however, the outer bank encircling the ditch had worn away over the millennia, and by the nineteenth century it would indeed have looked more like a hillfort than a henge. Excavation of the site, however, conclusively proved it to have been a henge.
As a Class II henge, the monument has two entrances, one roughly on the North side, and one roughly South. However, these two entrances do not line up directly opposite each other, and the Northern entrance in particular points more to the North-east than to true or magnetic North as such. The possible significance of this fact (if any) is unknown, but such apparent mis-alignments of henge entrances in Class II monuments is not uncommon. The Southern entrance is currently used as the entrance to the reconstruction of the site, with the modern gravel path leading through the middle of the original.
The South Entrance to the Henge (Looking North-East)
Evidence from other sites suggests that some form of partition (probably of fencing) was often placed across henge entrances, although no line of post-holes has yet been identified across the Cairnpapple entrances.
The North Entrance to the Henge (Looking East), including Circle Post-Holes
It is thought that the henge bank at Cairnpapple would have been of sufficient height to have effectively blocked out any view of the surrounding landscape, leaving only the sky visible, but this would also have had the effect of making any ceremonies or rituals performed within the space entirely invisible to anyone in the surrounding landscape. Given this fact, it would seem very likely that the entrances would also have been masked by the kind of partitions found elsewhere.
Additionally, if the circle of uprights within the henge had any significant alignments with, for example, solar or lunar events, the effect of the henge bank would have been to regularise the points at which these events could be observed, giving an absolutely level horizon instead of the irregularity of the natural horizon, marked as it is by various landscape features such as hills, mountains and islands. Hence, to rediscover any possible astronomical alignments for the circle, we would encounter the difficulty of having to take into account the probable height of the henge bank, and avoid making the mistake of calculating any alignments from the natural horizon.
Today, the South-eastern section of the ditch is the best preserved area of the henge, and, impressively, was cut into the bedrock itself due to the already-mentioned shallowness of the topsoil.
The Rock-cut South-East Section of the Henge-Ditch (Looking South-West)
Unfortunately, on the West side of the henge, the ditch is particularly silted up and the bank has been largely levelled by early modern farming. Indeed, the final cairn in the later Bronze Age sequence (see below) actually covers much of the Western side of the henge ditch, indicating that it had either silted up after about 1000 years, or had been deliberately filled in by the Bronze Age cairn-builders.
In considering the feat of engineering represented by the partially rock-cut henge ditch, it is worth remembering that evidence from other similar Neolithic sites points to the main tool of excavation being simple bone picks made of deer antler. While no antler-picks have (yet) been recovered from Cairnpapple, it is highly likely that even the South-eastern, rock-cut section was dug using such tools, and certainly, evidence from the antler-bone pins found associated with some of the cremations here demonstrates that this material was indeed available to the Neolithic builders of the monument. No doubt, though, a rather large number of antler-picks would have been worn out in digging this section of the henge ditch alone!
In Piggott's excavation, a circle of twenty-four post-holes were identified within the henge enclosure, with an additional two inliers indicated, one at each of the henge entrances. A further large post-hole was found in 1964/65 during work on the site, on the henge berm between the bank and the South-east end of the ditch. Ignoring the seven possible post-holes of the Cove and Pit-Arc structure, this gives a total of twenty-seven post-holes known to date within the circle henge, twenty-four being for the circle itself.
Post-holes on the Eastern Side of the Circle (Looking North)
Unfortunately, no standing-stones were found in situ within or immediately adjacent to these post-holes. Nonetheless, Piggott made the then natural assumption that the uprights placed in these post-holes would have been of stone. Only a few circles of wooden uprights had been identified by the late 1940s, but in the latter decades of the twentieth century, an increasing number had been found, not least the famous English examples of Woodhenge (near Stonehenge) and Seahenge, the latter uncovered by coastal erosion on a beach near King's Lynn in Norfolk.
The main argument for the Cairnpapple circle having been constructed of timber rather than stone has been advanced by Barclay, using comparisons with the known wood circle within the henge at Balfarg, on the North side of Glenrothes in Fife. What this argument quietly side-steps, however, is the fact that while the Balfarg circle is indeed thought to have originally been a timber structure, it was later rebuilt using stone. Indeed, two standing stones can still be seen at Balfarg - one at the henge entrance, and one nearby in the circle itself. And like the uprights at Cairnpapple's entrances, the Balfarg "entrance stone" lies on the right-hand side as one enters.
The Two Stones at the Entrance to Balfarg Henge
The debate over whether or not Cairnpapple's circle was of timber or stone continues to this day, not least given the plausibility of and continued support for Piggott's hypothesis that the circle stones may have been reused in constructing certain features of the later Bronze Age sequence (see below).
The Bronze Age saw Cairnpapple's primary function shifting from ceremonial to funerary, a use which continued for some two millennia or more. It was during this phase that a sequence of three cairns were built, successively replacing each other.
The first major burial at Cairnpapple is the famous and unique North Grave, which appears to be transitional between the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age, perhaps around or before 2000BC. It is a sub-rectangular rock-cut grave measuring approximately 7x4 feet and on its Western end covers over the area of the Neolithic "cove".
The North Grave (Looking North)
On excavation, the North Grave contained evidence of a single body laid out full-length and roughly aligned with the head pointing East and the feet West. Unfortunately, due to the acidity of the soil, practically nothing of the body remained on excavation other than stains in the earth, but although the gender is unknown, the alignment of the body was evident enough from the location of fragments of tooth enamel towards the East end.
Several grave goods were also found in the North Grave, including three beakers broken, presumably, by the weight of the earth covering them - one to the right of the head, another below the feet to the West with an oak lid, and a fragment of the base of a third beaker mixed in with the more substantial remains of the latter. Thankfully, conservation work has succeeded in viably restoring two of these beakers:
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Beakers 1 & 2 from the North Grave |
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Over the tooth enamel found at the East end of the grave, the remains of an ovoid oak object was found measuring some 9x6 inches across and 1 inch thick, which Piggott suggested may have been a ceremonial face-mask, tablet, cup or bowl. Conventionally, it is interpreted as a mask. To the right of the body lay a long oak object about 3.5 feet in length, some 3 inches thick in the centre and possibly around 6 inches thick at each end, although the widening of the object on the West end may have been the result of deformation due to soil pressure. This object is generally described as a club, but such an interpretation seems to be based on rather primitivist assumptions, and it might be better interpreted as some form of ceremonial staff, signifying the evidently high status of the person in the grave.
The grave is surrounded by an oval inner kerb of stones (mainly local sandstone) which are higher than one might expect for a cairn kerb, and rather form a low enclosing wall. However, three large stones of local basalt also survive in what appears to be the remains of an outer kerb, which presumably circumscribed the hypothesised small cairn which was placed over the whole. This double kerb makes the cairn rather unusual.
The North Grave Double Kerb, North Side
The North Grave Double Kerb, East Side
The oddity of the North Grave is compunded by the existence of a large single standing stone, again of local basalt, at the foot of the grave, placed at the Eastern edge of the Southernmost post-hole of the cove stone-setting (the darkened area at the top indicates the portion of the monolith which was exposed above the surface of the cairn material at the time of excavation).
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The North Grave Monolith |
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According to Piggott's theory, this monolith, and the recumbent stone forming the only remaining section of the Cairn 1 outer kerb on the South-east side, is likely to have derived from the Neolithic stone circle within the henge monument. But this does not explain its function within the North Grave, since monoliths do not generally function as grave-markers in either the Neolithic or the Bronze Age. Furthermore, the monolith would have stuck out of the edge of the cairn, partially covered at the base - a highly unusual feature. Indeed, as Piggot commented:
This burial has many points of remarkable interest. Its deposition at the foot of a standing-stone with its stone setting around it, the presumed extended position of the body, the wooden object that so strongly suggests a mask placed over the face, the two beakers and the probably wooden club, are all features difficult to parallel even in solation, let alone combined in one grave... In itself, the North Grave is unparalleled in contents and structure so far as is known, but it does seem best explicable in some sort of ritual or ceremonial context.[9]
Overall, then, the North Grave presents a totally unique assemblage which leaves a number of questions open. Nonetheless, it was clearly constructed for a person of high status, perhaps a major religious or political figure.
Outside the area of Cairn 1 Piggott's team also discovered a small rock-cut burial pit measuring about 3.75 feet by 2 feet, indicating the inhumation of a small person, perhaps a child or adolescent, and containing the remains of a beaker, probably of local origin, which has now been reconstructed:
Beaker from Pit Burial
The next phase in the Bronze Age burial sequence is the addition of two cist graves to the South of Cairn 1 and the North Grave, and the extension of the cairn area to cover them and two ambiguous solitary stones, creating Cairn 2 as a result with an encompassing kerb of some 50 feet in diameter. Visitors to Cairnpapple will notice that the cairn currently on-site is a modern concrete reconstruction of Cairn 2, probably higher than the original would have been, and hollow in order to allow viewings of the contents of the first two cairns.
The Modern Reconstruction of Cairn 2
The whole cairn was built on a thick bed of clay, on the Western side of the Neolithic henge monument, and, in fact, entirely covering over two of the post-holes of the latter's circle. The cairn was solid, rather than chambered, and was constructed primarily of large stones, possibly without being mixed with soil at all, but with a further layer of clay on a level below the top of the kerb. However, it is probably significant that Piggot identified three cup-marked stones which appeared to have been mixed in with the otherwise unmarked cairn material. The kerb consisted of twenty-one long and generally rectangular slabs, some up to nine feet in length. The stone is all local, mainly basalt or dolerite, with one sandstone example.
Along with the three cup-marked stones found within the cairn materials was a large ball-like stone object with two pitted dents opposite each other, which Piggot describes as a "stone-dressing maul or similar tool."[10]
Stone Maul from Cairn 2
The two cists found in Cairn 2 are classic examples of their type, with the large rectangular Cist A roughly at the centre and the smaller, squarish Cist B towards the inner East side of the cairn.
Cist A inside Cairn 2
Cist A is constructed of local sandstone and basalt, with a massive basalt capstone some 8 by 4 feet and about 1.25 inches thick, aligned roughly North-South. It was found to contain evidence of an inhumation along with an intact food vessel:
Food Vessel from Cist A
Another find was a cup-marked stone inside the cist which Piggott suggested may have come from its collapsed Western wall, although it could have had the same origins as the other three similar stones from the cairn material, perhaps falling into the cist due to the wall's collapse. In addition to this find was a small unidentifiable carbonised object on the cist floor.
Cist A inside Cairn 2
Cist B consisted of a small rectangular wall, again aligned roughly North-South, with a squarish capstone of local sandstone measuring almost 5 foot square and about 1.5 feet thick. Unlike Cist A, it contained a cremation, possibly of a young female adult. The only possible grave-good found in this cist was a large polished green pebble, the significance of which is unknown.
Unfortunately, only Cist A can now be seen within the Cairn 2 reconstruction, and Cist B is no longer in place. Local lore has long suggested that the reason for this absence is that Piggott's team irrevocably damaged the cist's capstone on excavation, and this lore has even made its way into some official presentations on the site's history. However, the current author rediscovered the capstone in October 2003, masquerading as a rather uncharacteristically slab-like "kerbstone" on the Western side of Cairn 3.
The Cist B Capstone (Now in Cairn 3's Kerb)
Even a cursory glance at Piggott's original excavation plans yields the fact that no stone was originally found at this point in the Cairn 3 kerb, and the only conclusion is that it was placed there after the excavation, and subsequently overlooked and forgotten. Moreover, the stone fits the roughly 5 foot square, 1.5 foot deep dimensions given by Piggot, and is also made of sandstone, as he describes.
The Cist B Capstone From Above
The ultimate arbiter, though, is that the stone in Cairn 3's kerb looks identical to the photographs which Piggott published of the Cist B capstone, albeit slightly more weathered than it was in 1949, and possibly having suffered some frost damage on the upper face at what is now its Southern end.
The only explanation for the "disappearance" of this stone for some 55 years is that when the Ministry of Works reconstructed the site in 1949, they neglected to fully check it against the excavation plans, and, because it had been placed (one assumes temporarily) along the line of Cairn 3's kerb, it was thought merely to have been an original part of that kerb, despite being a very un-kerb-like slab. One can only hope that Historic Scotland will soon return the Cist B capstone to its original location within Cairn 2.
One further component of Cairn 2 deserves comment, although most previous commentators have ignored it - specifically, the two stones at the inner Southern end of the cairn.
Stone 1, South End of Cairn 2
These are large stones of local basalt which appear to be in a (very) rough North-South alignment with the standing stone in the North Grave, through the length of Cist A. As such, their placing seems deliberate, although a specific purpose is not immediately obvious.
Stone 2, South End of Cairn 2
The first of these stones has clearly been broken at some point, and would originally have been much longer. According to Piggot, it represents another excellent candidate for one of the "missing" uprights from the henge's conjectured stone circle, and certainly, it presents the aspect of a perfectly credible broken standing-stone.
Cairn 3 is the final and most impressive structure within the Bronze Age sequence at Cairnpapple, covering not only the area of Cairns 1 and 2, but also a substantial part of the Western side of the henge, including nine of the circle's post-holes. When Piggott's team first visited the site, the reduced mound of Cairn 3 was the most obvious feature, although excavation of the preceding two cairns and henge structures means that only its kerb is visible today.
Cairn 3 Kerbstones (Looking North-west)
This cairn measures about 100 feet in diameter - roughly double the size of Cairn 2 - and seems to have been composed of stones mixed with earth. Equally, the final cairn does not have a clay flooring of the kind found in Cairn 2. Again, though, like Cairns 1 and 2, it was of solid construction, rather than chambered. Piggott also suggested that some of the earth used in constructing the final cairn may have been robbed from the Neolithic henge-bank.
Cairn 3 Kerbstones Overlapping Henge-ditch (Looking North)
The kerb for Cairn 3, which is one of the most prominent features of the site today, consists of some 60 or so roughly rounded boulders, very unlike the more generally elongated slabs used in constructing the kerb of Cairn 2, and thus more characteristic of other cairns in the area. There is thus little likelihood that any of the conjectured upright stones from the henge were re-used to form the kerb of Cairn 3.
Unfortunately, no impressively primary burial has been identified with Cairn 3, although Piggot suggested that it may have been placed on or dug into the summit of Cairn 2, and had thus weathered away entirely, long before his team arrived. Nonetheless, two burials were found, being cremated remains within inverted cinerary urns, on the Western and Southern sides of the cairn.
Cairn 3 Cinerary Urn 1 (Western Side)
Aside from cremated human remains, the Western cinerary urn (above) also contained a small bone pin, complete with an eyed head, measuring some 3 inches long.
Small Bone Pin (Western Urn)
The Southern cinerary urn in Cairn 3 also included a larger bone pin with a missing head, probably made of red deer antler, and measuring some 6 inches long.
Large Bone Pin
Similar bone pins have been found associated with several other Bronze Age cremations throughout Britain, but their precise significance has never been established, other than the obvious assumption of some form of ritual function.
Of more general note regarding the sequence of Bronze Age cairns is that they were not constucted with any geometric regard to the structure of the Neolithic monuments. Indeed, the cairns are placed off-centre, to the West of the henge and circle, with Cairn 2's kerb overlapping post-holes from the circle, and Cairn 3's kerb overlapping the curve of the henge ditch itself. This, along with suspicions that the conjectured stones from the circle were re-used in the kerb of Cairn 2, and that the henge-bank's earth was quarried for re-use in Cairn 3, clearly suggests that, by the Bronze Age, the Neolithic henge and circle were at the very least defunct, and probably in a state of bad repair, if visible at all in their original contexts.
The use of Cairnpapple as a burial site continued into early historical times, with four oblong burial pits on the East edge of the henge, very clearly aligned East-to-West, now marked out by being filled with white gravel. Like the North Grave, these were cut into the hill's bedrock, and one of them is cut into one of the post-holes for the henge's circle.
The Early Historic Graves (Looking North)
Unfortunately, due to the acidity of the soil, no human remains were found in them. More significantly, no other artefacts were recovered from them, and this lack of grave-goods, combined with their East-West alignment, strongly suggests a Christian provenance, and thus a date of perhaps up to 500AD.
The Early Historic Graves (Looking South)
Judging by their sizes, we may assume that the two largest graves, immediately adjacent to each other, contained the bodies of adults, while the other two smaller graves on their North side contained an adolescent and a child, although without even the existence of bone fragments, this must necessarily remain conjecture.
We know from the literary evidence of Aneirin that the local Celtic tribe, the Gododdin, were Christian by at least 600AD, and there are also unproven suggestions that St. Ninian may have visited the nearby church at Torphichen in his mission to convert the Southern Picts in, according to Bede, 565AD. However, we also have good local evidence of the early Christian re-use of prehistoric and pagan shrines in the placing of a Christian cross-slab on the cup-and-ring site of nearby Tormain Hill, now relocated to Dalmahoy Kirk, and it is tempting to imagine that cross being used by the same community of Christians who re-used Cairnpapple for these four simple graves. Furthermore, we have the evidence of a probably Celtic Christian cross-shaft base on the North-east side of Cairnpapple itself, at Craigmailing on the edge of Cathlaw Hill, although the probable date for this cross would be a couple of centuries later than the Cairnpapple graves.
Piggott's natural assumption for his time was that the Neolithic circle within the henge would have consisted of upright stones. Barclay's subsequent re-interpretation of the site suggests instead that the uprights would have been large wooden posts. Of course, either theory is viable, and evidence of both kinds of structures is now widely available across the whole extent of Britain. Equally, Barclay's own evidence from Balfarg in Fife (see above) shows that the two theories are not mutually exclusive, and an original timber circle could have later been replaced by a stone one.
The evidence presented by Piggot from the site itself points to the possible (yet currently unproveable) Bronze Age re-use of the Neolithic circle-stones in the construction of the kerb of Cairn 2. Indeed, one of these stones is currently partially exposed, and it's massive 9-foot length, smooth slab-like character, and evident distinction from the more normative rough, rounded boulders used in the kerb of Cairn 3 is clear:
Possible Re-used Monolith in Cairn 2's Kerb
However, this Cairn 2's kerb yields a total of twenty-one stones out of the twenty-four required for the circle itself plus two inliers at the North and South entrances - in other words, five stones from the circle are "missing" overall. Nonetheless, as Piggot himself pointed out, we also have the impressive monolith at the foot of the North Grave, a recumbent slab-like kerbstone at its head, and the unexplained broken stone inside the South end of Cairn 2 (see above). This would, of course, yield a total of twenty-four stones - enough to explain the circle as such, but not to account for the two inliers by the henge entrances. Happily, one further stone, now on the East side of the monument (and, intriguingly, not in a position indicated by Piggott's excavation plans), between the area of Cairn 3 and the Christian cemetary, appears to be an excellent candidate for being another standing-stone, albeit broken and now recumbent, much like the stone at the South end of Cairn 2.
Possible Broken Monolith, East of the Cairns
If this is indeed an authentic standing-stone, we would then only be missing one out of the total of twenty-six. Moreover, the broken nature of two of these stones is a possible indicator of re-use, and it could simply be that the final missing stone was completely quarried and its component parts now lie scattered and unidentifiable across the other later structures. At this point, with twenty-five eminently viable stones and only one apparently absent, Piggott's hypothesis of a stone circle re-used at later times begins to look very credible indeed.
It is important to remember that the area excavated by Piggott's team in 1947 & 1948 was entirely within the area of the henge monument. As such, it is highly likely that other finds are still onsite around this area, waiting to be discovered. In addition, the existence of a possible barrow and ring-ditch on the Western slopes of the hill, and the likelihood of an outlier on the South-eastern slope, suggest a far wider ritual area, covering more-or-less the entirety of the hill. Clearly, the full story of Cairnpapple and its significance as a major religious centre in prehistoric Lothian has yet to be revealed.
thanks to wally of livingston for many discussions on cairnpapple, both learned and insane (but always profound),
elizabeth henderson of west lothian libraries for generous permission to photograph the cairnpapple artifacts,
james gentles for generous permission to use his wonderful aerial photography,
tony moore (ex-custodian) for endless conversations, insights and an excellent induction to being a cairnpapple custodian in 2003,
harry peterson (ex-custodian) for chats and information of various kinds,
robert wallach (ex-custodian) for pointing out the broken standing-stone to the east of the cairn area and the magnetic stone in the kerb of cairn 3,
and sandy esson & alex tavern, current historic scotland custodians of cairnpapple hill.
footnotes
[1] Stuart Piggot, "The Excavations at Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian, 1947-48", in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland 1947-48, Vol.82, 1950, pp.68-123. It should also be noted that Piggott's work at Cairnpapple was the first modern excavation of a henge site in Scotland.
[2] Gordon Barclay, "Cairnpapple Revisited: 1948-1998", in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society Vol.65, 1999, pp.17-46.
[3] References giving the "Cairn Naple" (or sometimes "Cairn-naple") form of the placename can be found in James Patton and William M. Hetherington's entries for the parish of Torphichen in the C18th and C19th editions of the Statistical Accounts of Scotland respectively, the Ordnance Survery map of 1856, and also in the Torphichen entry in Francis H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical (Edinburgh: Thomas C. Jack, 1882-1885).
[4] Piggot, op.cit., p.71.
[5] ibid., p.118.
[6] The full text for this region in the Ravenna Cosmography is as follows: "Iterum sunt ciuitates in ipsa britania recto tramite una alteri conexe ubi et ipsa britania plus angustissima de occeano in occeano ±e dinoscitur. id est: Velunia Volitanio Pexa Begesse Colanica Medionemeton Subdobiadon Litana Cibra Credigone" - http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/Ravenna_Cosmography/text.html
[7] W.J. Watson, The Celtic Placenames of Scotland (Edinburgh: 1926), p.245.
[8] Barry Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts (London: Penguin, 1999), p.198.
[9] Piggot, op.cit., pp.90 & 92.
[10] ibid., p.98.