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Transcription

[Page] 144A

as we left the main road and passed
upwards to the shepherd's house in a
meadow among the trees I counted
twelve old black cock and a couple of
hens feeding. The shepherd, Pringle by
name, had been on the herding for 25
years but had never heard of the "ancient
subterranean habitations " referred to in
Harper.

Minnigaff.
Drannandow
(This may be the Drumfern Cairn)
On the open moorland about 1/4 mile to
the ? NE [North East] of the sheep rees at the upper edge of the
enclosed land above Drannandow is a
cairn low in elevation and overgrown but
surmounted by a comparatively recently
erected pile of stones. In diameter it
measures about 22'. There is no evidence
of its having been excavated .
Between it and the corner of the enclosed
land to the S W . [South West] lie a number of small cairns
Some 70 yds. [yards] to the E. [East] of it is another cairn,
also reduced to a low elevation, with a diameter
of about 20'. In its vicinity are the remains
of what appear to be ancient sheep rees -
and ruins of walls of larger enclosures.
The rees are somewhat bean-shaped
narrowing a little to one end where also

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[Page] 145
[Continued from page 144A]

the wall of one side is carried onward so as to
cover the entrance . This projection would

[Sketch inserted]

shelter the entrance and assist in
directing the sheep to the fold.
Here and there are the foundations of
small elliptical structures - probably
shieling bothies .

Some 30 yds. [yards] S. [South] of the last cairn there
seems to be the remains of another adjacent
to a sheep shelter. Various heaps of stone
still further S [South] between two lines of old enclosing
walls seem more like "cloddings" than sepulchral
cairns .

Stone Circle (unnoted )
Some 84' NE [North East] by E . [East] of the first above described
cairn are the remains of a stone circle .
on a plateau whence the ground falls away to the Staminnar burn.
Five stones remain in situ, two others are
prostrate and at one spot a collections of boulders
marks the site of another. ( I made a careful
plan by triangulation and the details may
be taken from it.) The stones are medium
sized boulders, the highest extending 2'.8" above
ground, and they are set with their broad
faces in line of the circumference. Adjacent
to the circle lie a number of similar stones
probably the other members which have been
uprooted.

[Continued on page 145A]