<< Our Photo Pages >> Dere Street Cairn - Round Cairn in Scotland in Scottish Borders
Submitted by vicky on Sunday, 22 December 2002 Page Views: 6878
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Dere Street Cairn Alternative Name: Black Knowe CairnCountry: Scotland County: Scottish Borders Type: Round Cairn
Map Ref: NT75061552 Landranger Map Number: 80
Latitude: 55.432930N Longitude: 2.395676W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 23rd Apr 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 3 Black Knowe Cairn (Dere Street Cairn), Scottish Borders:
From Trestle Cairn we followed the other side of the stone wall from Dere Street back downhill (this being Scotland I can’t get wholly used to the ‘right to roam’ even though we lived here for over 10 years. I wish we had this in England, too) with some interesting ‘lumps and bumps’ in the landscape on our right hand side – old quarries for Dere Street, old buildings or just marshy patches that have collapsed over the years?
Further down hill towards Black Knowe Cairn we spotted a green mown path cutting through the heavily tussocked grass that we were walking on by the stone wall, so switched onto this and it was easy walking down to the cairn.
What a site to end up at at the end of the day – it was very atmospheric and we spent ages wandering around the stones, looking at what might possibly be alignments between them, spotting two outliers to the north west and west, and just generally soaking up the magic of the place.
At the large stone in the field to the west I thought I saw a cup mark – it was definitely very smooth but worn, but I never know if my imagination is getting carried away. My husband certainly found no mention of rock art in this area before the visit.
Hubby walked over to the stone wall to see if there was possibly an alignment with the Black Knowe Standing Stone at the other side, but it was difficult to tell (I’d love to see an aerial photograph of these features).
Standing on the outlier at the north eastern edge of the cairn looking back, five of the stones seem to form an alignment running south west down the hill.
From the cairn the grassy path continues southwards down the hill. The only gate from the field is right in the middle of the lower side, then we had to track diagonally left to get back to the gate leading back onto Dere Street near the Scout Hut and parking area by Pennymuir Roman Camp A.
For more information see Canmore ID 57947, the 1947 report reading: "This small round cairn is c 27' in diameter with 5 boulders on its circumference. It is turf-covered and only 1'10" in height; it does not appear to have been opened, but the S arc has been worn down by cattle rubbing against the adjacent boulders. Four of these are still standing, though one is inclined outwards from the cairn, and measure, 2', 2'8", 2'7", and 4'6" respectively above the present surface; while the fifth, now recumbent, originally stood to a height of 3'11" including the sunken base. At distances varying from 42' to 115' from the centre of the cairn there are four more boulders, one of which measures 4' 9" in length and is certainly recumbent but owing to their somewhat cube-like shapes it is impossible to tell whether the other three are recumbent or upright. These stones have presumably been removed from the peristalith of the cairn, and the suggestion (J Hardy 1887), that they are the remains of an outer circle is untenable."
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73m ENE 74° Black Knowe (Borders)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT75131554)
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
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