Longman Hill
Longman Hill is a Bronze Age long barrow situated atop a prominent rounded landform in Banffshire, near Banff Bay. Due to the low lying coastal plain characteristics, the elevation of Longman Hill affords a long distance view as far as the Moray Firth.[1]
Nearby is the village of Longmanhill.
Contents
Description
The monument is a well-preserved long earthen burial mound, about 220 feet long in total. It appears to comprise a large round mound 70 feet in diameter and fourteen feet high, with a long tail to the south-south-west. Slight damage has been done to the area at the north by quarrying and by earlier excavations, and a smaller hole was dug into the south end in the 1950s. The main part of the monument survives intact, however.
The main 220-foot barrow is separated on the south from the long cairn by a trench-like hollow five feet deep 150 feet long, nine feet high and varying from 40 feet wide at the north to 25 feet wide at the south end. The whole was reported in 1888 to be fairly complete, apart from the hollows caused by modern excavations.[2]
The barrow or 'cairn' is one of the four long barrows in the eastern Highlands which have affinities with the characteristic burial mound of the 'Windmill Hill culture' in southern and eastern Great Britain. The northern end is about 14 feet high and is divided from the remainder by a transverse hollow, possibly the site of an unrecorded excavation. Modern quarrying into the side of the mound shows it to be built mainly of earth and probing detected relatively few stones.[3]
Burials
The excavations in 1886 and 1888 revealed to urn-burials. On 18 September 1886 at the south end of the long barrow an urn was found filled with calcined bones. On 5 February 1888 another urn was found filled with black mould. These are taken to be secondary cinerary burials.[2]
Location
- Location map: 57°38’51"N, 2°26’27"W
References
- ↑ C.Michael Hogan (2008) Longman Hill, Modern Antiquarian [1]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chalmers, A.: 'The barony of Fetterangus: unwritten history' (Trans Buchan Fld Club 1898), vol. 4, Page 38
- ↑ Piggott, S.: 'The prehistoric peoples of Scotland' (Studies in ancient history and archaeology series, 1963) pages 12-13
- CANMORE (RCAHMS) record of Longman Hill
- Henshall, A S.: 'The chambered tombs of Scotland' (1963) vol. 1. page 390
