This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.
We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?
If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.
Latitude: 55.7866 / 55°47'11"N
Longitude: -2.483 / 2°28'58"W
OS Eastings: 369809
OS Northings: 654915
OS Grid: NT698549
Mapcode National: GBR C13J.7H
Mapcode Global: WH8WZ.TTT9
Entry Name: Dirrington Great Law,three cairns
Scheduled Date: 7 February 1989
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM4626
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Prehistoric ritual and funerary: cairn (type uncertain)
Location: Longformacus
County: Scottish Borders
Electoral Ward: Mid Berwickshire
Traditional County: Berwickshire
The monument is a group of three burial cairns of the earlier Bronze Age situated on the summit of Dirrington Great Law; they are about 3500 years old. The westernmost cairn measures about 17m in diameter and 1.8m in height within an irregular ditch. The easternmost cairn measures about 15.5m in diameter and 1.8m in height. These two cairns closely resemble the large cairn standing on the summit of Dirrington Little law, to the SW. Between the two large cairns lies a third cairn, measuring 7.5m in diameter and 0.5m in height, adjacent to an Ordnance Survey triangulation pillar. This cairn can be compared with the small cairn on the S flank of Dirrington Little Law.
An area measuring 90m WSW-ENE by 50m transversely is proposed for scheduling to include the three cairns and an area around them in which traces of contemporary burial and ceremonial activities are likely to survive. The fabric of the OS pillar is specifically excluded from the scheduling.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument, as a group of well preserved burial cairns, is rare in this area. The two larger cairns are particularly unusual because of their size. The cairns and the area around them are of national importance to the theme of early Bronze Age burial and ceremonial practices.
The two types of cairn on the summit of the Law may represent burial at two different times in the earlier Bronze Age. Comparison of the burial deposits in these cairns, and in the related cairns on the summit and flank of the Little Law would provide information of condsiderable importance to the study of the development of prehistoric burial.
The cairns are of particular importance because of their prominent position; this may reflect the high status in their society of the people buried there. Additionally, study of the old land surfaces covered by the cairns would provide information of national importance to the theme of prehistoric land use.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the site as NT65SE 1.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Other nearby scheduled monuments