Visiting an ancient burial site at Cairnpapple Hill in Central Scotland

We recently visited an ancient burial site in Central Scotland thought to date back to around 2800 BC (so 4800 years old - 600 years older than the pyramids !).

We'd never visited the site before, so it was a first for us to see, even though it was only around 30 or so miles from where we live. Its right up in the hills in Central Scotland, and not an area we would normally pass.

You have to take some pretty small roads to get to it, that we had never been on before, and then you have a short climb to get to it. You can see where we parked at the bottom of these steps.

You then follow this rough track between farmers fields at the top of the hill to get to the site.

The site is managed and run by Historic Scotland. Thats the quaint wee visitor centre right there in the old Nissan Hut ! We were the only people there when we visited, so we had the entire site to ourselves.

The site consists of a central cairn (around which a protective shelter has been constructed) with a number of standing stones, with grave pits positioned around it.

Interestingly, investigations at the site show that it was used for various burials over a period of around nearly 3000 years - not continuously, but in various phases, up to around 100 AD.

The view over the farmers freshly ploughed field next door shows that the site really is right up at the top of the hills.

The pits around the central chamber were quite cool, and clearly definable.

It was possible to then climb down a ladder into the main cairn (burial chamber). The white domed part was constructed in the 1940s, to make it accessible for visits, and to provide protection, but is not a real representation of what was there originally. Although there would have been a burial chamber, it would not have been as high and large is what is there now.

However, the grave sites inside the chamber do represent what was originally found there.

There were a number of artifacts found during the excavations, and one I found to be quite remarkable. It was an old pottery beaker or drinking vessel. I forgot to take a picture of it. It wasnt on site, but is instead in a museum now, but dates to something like 4000 years old and was found fully intact probably making it one of the oldest such man-made objects in Scotland. The pictures of it showed it to be in pretty good shape and you could see the v-shaped patterns that had been pressed into the wet clay to give it some decoration. It really was impressive (to me at least).

I always find it amazing to find something so old still around. In Scotland we have vast areas of very rarely used land, so it always makes me wonder about what else we've still yet to find. And on the other hand, it also makes me wonder about all of the other sites we have already lost because they were plundered, and used for other purposes.

It was also possible to clearly see the surrounding ditch that marked the outer boundary of the site as well.

It was certainly interesting to see, and didnt take us much time to go round it all, but we certainly found it very interesting, and the location was quite stunning.

I do wonder what the site must have looked like in its hey-day, I guess we'll never really know now, and I find it amazing that it existed all those years ago - although we do have quite a few sites around Scotland (and wider around the UK) approaching similar ages.

We certainly enjoyed the visit, and would recommend it, although it was a fairly wet day when we went, and the visibility from the top of the hill wasnt as good as it could be. On a warm sunny and clear day it would be pretty awesome, as I bet the views all around are pretty good too.

Certainly worth checking out !

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