Cairnpapple Hill facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Cairnpapple Hill |
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Burial mound on Cairnpapple Hill
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 312 m (1,024 ft) |
| Prominence | c. 173 metres (568 ft) |
| Geography | |
 Cairnpapple Hill
Location in Scotland
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| OS grid | NS987718 |
| Topo map | OS Landranger 65 |
Cairnpapple Hill is a special hill in central Scotland. You can see far and wide from its top! For about 4,000 years, people used this hill for important ceremonies. It was like other famous ancient places, such as the Standing Stones of Stenness.
The top of the hill is 312 meters (about 1,023 feet) above sea level. It's about 3 kilometers (2 miles) north of Bathgate. In the 1800s, trees hid the site completely. Then, in 1947–1948, an archaeologist named Stuart Piggott dug up the area. He found many ancient structures from different times. Later, in 1998, Gordon Barclay helped explain the site for Historic Scotland. Today, Cairnpapple Hill is a protected ancient monument.
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Ancient History of Cairnpapple Hill
Cairnpapple Hill has been an important place for thousands of years. People built different monuments here over time. Each new group added their own structures and rituals.
Neolithic Period: Early Ceremonies
The first ceremonies at Cairnpapple Hill began around 3500 BC. This was during the Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone Age. People left valuable items on the hill. These were probably offerings to their gods or spirits. They included beautiful pottery bowls and stone axe heads. Some of these axe heads came from far away, like Cumbria and Wales.
Around 3000 BC, a large circular monument was built. This type of monument is called a henge. It had a ditch dug into the rock, about 3.6 meters (12 feet) wide. There was also a bank of earth outside the ditch. People could enter through wide openings on the north and south sides. Inside, there was an oval shape made of 24 tall posts. These were likely made of wood, but could have been standing stones. There was also an inner circle of similar posts.
Bronze Age: Burials and Cairns
Later, during the Bronze Age, new rituals took place. A small stone and clay cairn was built inside the henge. A cairn is a pile of stones, often used as a burial monument. Next to this cairn was a tall standing stone, about 2 meters (7 feet) high. There were also smaller stones arranged nearby.
Around this time, people buried their dead here. Archaeologists found traces of at least one burial under the cairn. They also found wooden objects, possibly a mask and a club. Pottery from the Beaker culture was also found. This tells us the burial happened around 2000 BC.
Later, this small cairn was covered by a much larger one. This second cairn was about 15 meters (50 feet) across. It was several meters high and had a border of huge stone slabs. This large cairn included Bronze Age burial cists. A cist is a small stone box used for burials. One cist held a special pot called a food vessel.
Even more stone was added later, making the cairn even bigger. It grew to about 30 meters (100 feet) wide. This huge cairn now covered the original ditch and bank of the henge. It turned the entire site into a massive tomb. Inside the ditch, four graves were found. These were once thought to be from the Iron Age. However, because they faced east-west, they are now believed to be early Christian burials. They date to around 500 to 1000 AD.
Cairnpapple Hill Today
Today, Cairnpapple Hill is open to visitors from April to September. It has a small visitor centre. The discoveries from the 1940s excavations are partly covered. A concrete dome now sits where the second cairn once was. This dome is much taller than the original cairn. Visitors can go inside and see reconstructed graves.
Outside the dome, the places where ancient posts and graves were found are marked. Different colored gravel fills these spots. Red gravel shows where upright posts or pits were. White gravel marks the early Christian burials. This display helps visitors see all the different stages of the site's history at once.
The very top of Cairnpapple Hill is actually a bit south of the main monument. There you will find a trig point, which is a marker used for surveying.
What Does the Name Mean?
The name Cairnpapple Hill, or sometimes Cairniepapple, is a bit of a mystery. Experts are not completely sure where it comes from. It might be from an old language like Welsh (a Brythonic language). Or it could be from Scottish Gaelic (a Goidelic language). It might even be a mix of both.
The first part, cairn-, means a pile of stones. This word is similar in both Welsh (carn) and Gaelic (càrn or càirn). The middle part, -ie-, likely means "of the". This is like "y" in Welsh or "a" in Gaelic.
The last part, -papple, is the hardest to figure out. It could mean "tent" (Welsh pabell, Gaelic puball). It might also mean "people" or "congregation" (Welsh pob(o)l, Gaelic pobull). Some even think it could mean "eye" (from Old Welsh pubell). So, "Cairniepapple" most likely means "Cairn of the tent", "Cairn of the people", or "Cairn of the eye".
