OS1/8/2/61
| List of names as written | Various modes of spelling | Authorities for spelling | Situation | Description remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STONE COFFINS AND URNS FOUND NEAR HERE | Stone Coffins and Urns found here | Mr James Moir Mr Andrew Jamieson Mr S. N. Morrison |
139-04 | Some years since, and before the erection of the present range of Villas Known as Mar's Hill, the workmen employed in making some improvements about the suburbs of the Town of Alloa turned up a number of Stone Coffins and Urns, the former containing Human Remains, the latter, dust. |
Continued entries/extra info
[Page] 61Town of Alloa
"In the year 1828, an Ancient Roman burying ground was discovered, when the old road between the Minister's glebe and Mar's Hill was repairing. There were the found above twenty sepulchral vases or urns of coarse pottery, very rudely ornamented. They contained burnt human bones, and were placed in an inverted position, with the mouth resting upon a piece of flagstone. There were also found two stone coffins, each of about three feet in length. They were composed of flag sandstones. It appears that, in that remote age, those bodies which were not burnt were doubled and put into the stone coffins. In this instance, the bodies appear to have been those of men of distinction, as a pair of pure gold bracelets or bangles was found in each of the Coffins. They were highly polished, but devoid of all ornament. The workmen who found these supposed them to be coffin handles of brass, and paid little regard to them; but at the very instant, a pedlar, a stranger in the district, having joined the workmen, took advantage of their ignorance, And bought the one pair they had then got, for a few pounds. The Antiquarian Society of Scotland, upon learning the circumstance put advertisements in all the newspapers, offering the pedlar a reward if he would return them; but the bracelets never appeared. The other pair, exactly similar, were found in the Custody of one of the workmen, from whom they were purchased by Mr. Drummond Hay, Secretary of the Antiquarian Society, for twenty guineas; and they are now lodged in the Antiquarian Museum Edinburgh. The cemetery on Mar's Hill is the third tumulus that has been discovered within these forty years in the immediate vicinity of Alloa. It is, therefore, not improbable that Alloa is the Alauna of the Ancients, although there is little, positive evidence concerning the true site of it; and that this cemetery, which rises on a gentle acclivity from the banks of the Forth, was the burial place of the Roman Garrison."
New Statistical Account printed in 1842
Transcribers who have contributed to this page.
Kate51- Moderator, Marg 59
Location information for this page.
There are no linked mapsheets.