An imperfect caldron, with handles of the same kind, was found at Kilkerran, Ayrshire, with socketed celts and fragments of swords.

Fig. 510.—Kincardine Moss.

Others of these caldrons, but little differing in form from those found with bronze relics, have been accompanied by various tools formed of iron, as, for instance, those found at Cockburnspath, Berwickshire; and in Carlinwark Loch, Kelton, Kirkcudbright. There can, indeed, be little doubt that such vessels, if belonging to the Bronze Age, are to be assigned to the close rather than to the beginning or even middle of that period.

Several such caldrons have been discovered in Ireland.

That shown in Fig. 511 is about 21 inches in diameter and 12 inches high.[1596] It is composed of a number of pieces of thin bronze, each averaging 3¼ inches broad and decreasing in length near the bottom. “These plates bear the marks of hammering, and are joined at the seams with rivets averaging about half an inch asunder. These rivets have sharp conical heads externally, and some were evidently ornamental, as they exist in places where there are no joinings, and in the circular bottom portion they are large and plain. The upper margin of this vessel is 2½ inches broad,” and corrugated. “Its outside edge next the solid hoop has a double line of perforations in it.” It was in a vessel of this kind that part of the great Dowris hoard of bronze antiquities was deposited.

The metal is said by Mr. McAdam, in a paper on “Brazen Caldrons,” published in the Ulster Journal of Archæology,[1597] to be thinner than anything of the kind used in our modern cooking vessels, while the surfaces are almost as even and level as that of modern sheet brass.

Another caldron from Dowris, more nearly hemispherical, also with two rings, is in the collection of the Earl of Rosse. A specimen from Farney has been already mentioned. It resembles Fig. 511.

In the collection of Mr. T. W. U. Robinson, F.S.A., is a remarkably fine and perfect caldron, closely resembling Fig. 511, found in the parish of Ballyscullion, Co. Antrim, in June, 1880. The following are its dimensions:—

Diameter at top18inches.
Width of rim2⅜”
Extreme diameter24”
Height16”
Outside diameter of rings4¼”