The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

In 1791, four urns were discovered under a large stone near Drumglow Hill, Kincardineshire, and some others in a neighbouring cairn, of which the sole description given is that they were made of very coarse materials, and the outside glazed and ornamented with dotted lines.[474] In 1832, Lieutenant-Colonel Miller presented to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries "a finely formed barbed arrow-head of flint, and a fragment of what is supposed by the donor to have been a glazed sepulchral vase, found at Merlsford, at the foot of the Lomond Hill, Fifeshire."[475] This specimen is too imperfect to furnish any idea of the form of the vase, though it affords additional evidence of the introduction of this characteristic change in the primitive Scottish pottery at an early period.

The Old Statistical Account of the parish of Rathen contains a description of three cairns at Memsie, on the eastern coast of Aberdeenshire, which, it is remarked, "were very large, till of late, that great quantities of the stones have been taken away from two of them. The remains of human bones were lately found in one of them." The renewed invasion of one of these cairns about the year 1824 led to the discovery of the small urn here engraved. It measures four and a quarter inches in height, three inches in diameter at the bottom, and four at the top. Externally it is rough and destitute of any ornament, except the six parallel grooves which appear in the woodcut. Within it is entirely coated with a dark green glaze. Unfortunately, however, its most remarkable features no longer exist. Mr. John Gordon of Cairnbulg remarks in a letter with which he accompanied the donation of the urn to the Society in 1827,—"The urn has two projecting ears opposite each other, which fitted into corresponding double ones attached to a lid, by which the vessel, when found, was closely covered; and the whole of the projections were perforated to admit a pin which completed the fastening. The lid was unfortunately broken in opening the urn. It was made of the same materials, and fitted into the mouth which was formed for its reception." Part of the rim has also been broken away, but enough remains to shew, that above each projecting ear is an opening into which the lid had fitted as an additional security. No mention is made of anything having been found within the urn thus carefully secured, but beside it lay a sword, unfortunately no longer known to exist. It is described as "one-edged; the hilt of brass, the blade iron, seventeen inches and a quarter long, one inch and a quarter broad at the guard, from whence it tapers to the point; when found it was enclosed in a wooden scabbard." It appears to have borne considerable resemblance to an iron sword found by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in a tumulus opened by him at King's Barrow, in the Vale of Warminster, "which had a handle of oakwood. The blade was about eighteen inches long, two inches wide, and single-edged."

In the year 1800, Mr. Robert Dalyell presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a sword fractured in several pieces, portions of a helmet, battle-axe, and spear, all of iron, found under a cairn on his estate of Hunthills, Roxburghshire. But the whole are too much corroded to convey any very distinct idea of their original forms, though they add additional evidence in proof of the continued use of the sepulchral cairn, after the full development of the Teutonic era, with its characteristic implements of iron. In 1834 Professor Traill exhibited at a meeting of the Scottish Antiquaries the fragments of an iron sword, apparently that of a man of distinction, found along with the boss of a shield, at a place called Swenedrow, in Rowsey, Orkney. In the same place many fragments of ancient armour have been discovered; and the Professor believed the sword to have belonged to one of the Norwegian jarls.[476] Pennant engraves another ancient sword discovered in the island of Islay;[477] nor are such discoveries rare, though they have seldom obtained the minute attention they merit. A remarkable discovery of arms and other iron relics was made in the month of August 1834, at Fendoch Camp, an intrenchment on the river Almond, about five miles north-east of Crieff, in Perthshire. It is commonly described as a Roman camp, and the urns found in numerous cairns which surrounded it are no less unhesitatingly assigned to the legionary invaders. A drawing which I possess of one of the urns found inverted within a cist under one of the cairns, leaves no room to doubt that these sepulchral mounds, at least, are of British origin, and probably of a date long prior to the era of Roman invasion. On the occasion above referred to, while a labourer was digging across the eastern rampart of Fendoch Camp, he discovered at some depth below the surface three iron pots or kettles, the largest of which broke in pieces while he was in the act of raising it from the ground. The other two measured ten inches in diameter by four and a half in depth, and eight and a half inches in diameter by three inches in depth. They were each composed of a series of concentric circles rivetted together, the larger one having a straight handle twenty-one inches in length. Along with these were also found three heads of spears or javelins seven inches in length, a portion of a sword-blade eighteen and a half inches in length, three pairs of bits, two pairs of shears eleven inches long, the blades alone measuring four inches, a sort of spoon or ladle ten inches in extreme length of handle and bowl, a beautiful hinge of yellowish metal four inches long, carved and plated with silver, in excellent preservation, besides various other implements. The most of these interesting relics were carefully packed in the largest kettle, and a flat stone placed on its mouth. This curious hoard was purchased by my friend, Mr. John Buchanan of Glasgow, under whose zealous care they might have been deemed secure of a safe asylum, but the weighty box in which they were packed tempted some covetous knave, and our only poor consolation for their loss is to picture the mortification of the thief when he unlocked his treasure and found only a chest full of rusty iron!

But this unhappily is no solitary example of the destruction of ancient Scottish relics. "Vast quantities of arms," says the author of the Statistical Account of the parish of Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire, writing in 1834, "were lately found in a field on the farm of Corrieknows, near the burgh of Annan. The farmer who found them had them all, but a brass battle-axe, converted into husbandry utensils."[478] From inquiries since made, I find that the brass battle-axe was a bronze celt, so that, if we may assume, as seems most probable, that the iron weapons belonged to the same era, we have here most interesting examples of the weapons of the Teutonic Period. The farmer describes the swords as about two feet in length, edged on the one side to the handle, and on the other for the half length of the blade. Beside them lay some long spear-heads, nearly all broken, and more injured by rust than the swords. In the same field he also found a number of horse-shoes, some of which were an entire circle, and others curiously turned in at the heel. On the farm of Broom, in the same parish, there is a field called Bruce's Acres, where King Robert is said to have been defeated by the English; but the singular form of the horses' shoes found at Corrieknows adds additional evidence of these relics belonging to an earlier period. In the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries there are horse-shoes from the field of Bannockburn and from that of Nisbetmuir, Berwickshire, fought 24th June 1355, after the captivity of King David Bruce. They are chiefly remarkable for their very diminutive size, and in no way correspond to those described above. Antique horse-shoes of a different form have repeatedly been found in the neighbourhood of Carlinwark Loch, Kirkcudbrightshire, a prolific source of valuable archæological relics. The ancient name of Castle Douglas, on the margin of the loch, is Causeway End, from its position in relation to an ancient causeway constructed through the marsh, and believed to be a part of one of the great Roman roads. About this place most of the ancient horse-shoes have been discovered. One of them in the collection of Mr. Joseph Train is described by him as consisting of a solid piece of iron, not made to go round the edge of the hoof, but to cover the whole. On the inside, especially towards the heel, it is hollowed so as not to press upon the soft part of the foot. Though much worn in front this cumbrous lump of iron still weighs about six pounds, so that four of them must have formed no slight impediment to a horse. To what period these equestrian furnishings should be assigned it is not easy to determine. No relic yet discovered along with the remains of horses, so frequently found in the later tumuli, suggests the idea of the early Britons having shod the horses which they attached to their war-chariots. Montfaucon, however, describes a small iron horse-shoe which was discovered in 1653, in the tomb of Childeric, founder of the French monarchy, whose horse had been interred along with him, A.D. 481. The Rev. Samuel Pegge, in an ingenious paper "On the Shoeing of Horses among the Ancients,"[479] conceives that the custom was introduced into England by William the Conqueror; but it seems exceedingly improbable that either the Anglo-Romans or the Anglo-Saxons should have remained ignorant of a device which some allusions of Homer would lead us to suppose was not unknown even to the Greeks of the Bronze Period.

Ure describes and engraves in his History of the Parish of East Kilbride,[480] a very interesting discovery made at Castlemilk in 1792, of a helmet, gorget, dagger, and other iron relics, along with which were two bronze vessels, one of them of peculiar form, and also the remains of a leaden vase; but these it is probable were medieval antiquities. No doubt, however, can be entertained of the era of another iron relic described by him, but of which unfortunately no engraving exists. Some workmen engaged in demolishing a cairn in the same parish found in it a large urn filled with human bones, and close by it an iron implement designated "an old spade of a clumsy shape," but which was more probably an ancient bill or battle-axe. Mr. Robert Riddell describes two such weapons, figured in the Archæologia.[481] They were found in a moss near Terregles, Dumfriesshire, and measure each two and a half feet long, and above two inches thick at the back, though greatly corroded with rust. The Kilbride discoverers, on finding the urn, had confidently anticipated that its contents would prove a golden treasure, which they magnanimously resolved should be equitably divided. Having gulped down their mortification as best they might on finding their whole treasure dwindle to an old iron bill, "it was at length unanimously agreed that it should not be sold; it might, for anything they knew, be uncommonly ominous, especially as it was iron, and taken out of a grave which was generally believed to be haunted." So the desired division of the spoil was at length secured by having the curious relic converted into tackets or hobnails for their shoes![482]

The general character of the older Scottish superstitions in regard to iron, of which we have here some indications, more frequently refer to it rather as a charm against spells and malign influences of all sorts, entirely corresponding in this respect with the popular creed of Norway at the present day. In describing the "Adder Stone," Ure remarks, "It is thought by superstitious people to possess many wonderful properties. It is used as a charm to insure prosperity, and to prevent the malicious attacks of evil spirits. In this case, it must be closely kept in an iron box to secure it from the fairies, who are supposed to have an utter abhorrence at iron." This may be compared with another canon of northern folk-lore, referred to in a former chapter,[483] in relation to the flint arrow-head or elf-bolt. The inferences suggested by both are the same, pointing to an epoch when iron, as a novel introduction, could in no way be associated with the Elves and Gnomes, old as the primitive stone weapons of the aborigines. Pennant, however, describes a curious charm against witchcraft, in use in the Hebrides, where the milk of enchanted kine is boiled along with both flints and untempered steel—the bane and the antidote—which was held to give the operator complete power over the enchanter. We are still familiar with the rustic faith in the efficiency of the iron horse-shoe affixed to the stable-door as a certain protection against all supernatural evil influences.

A remarkable class of urns, so far as I yet know peculiar to Scotland, appears to belong for the most part to the Iron Period. They vary in form, but all agree in the singular characteristic of being open at both ends. One of these was discovered within the area of a stone circle at Barrach, Aberdeenshire, by a peasant digging for stones. It lay under a flat stone, with another placed below it, and was found to be filled with human bones.[484] Others are described in the old Statistical Reports as resembling chimney cans. But the most minute account of this singular class of sepulchral urns is furnished by Ure, to whose indefatigable researches within the limited district of which he has treated we owe so many valuable reminiscences of bygone discoveries. "In the bottom of a very small cairn on the lands of East Rogerton, the property of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, were found five urns not of the ordinary shape. They were about eighteen inches high; six wide at the one end and four at the other. Both ends were open. They were said by the workmen to be glazed, and ornamented with flowers; and narrower in the middle than at either end. They stood upon smooth stones distant from each other about three-quarters of a yard, and placed in a circular form. The top of each urn was covered with a thin piece of stone. They were all totally destroyed by the rustic labourers." Such is the lamentable yet ever-recurring history of our national antiquities. Vallancey has engraved a very beautiful bronze vase, dug up in 1769, near the church of Fahan, county of Donegal. The handles are horses' heads, very closely corresponding to the usual artistic style of this period; and the vase has the same remarkable peculiarity as the class of Scottish urns referred to, in being open at both ends.[485]