Secrets of Scotland's ancient tombs to be probed in new study

Jody Harrison
Sun 1 December 2024 

1. One of Scotland's Earliest Megalithic Monuments (Image: Gavin MacGregor, Archaeology Scotland)


They are the graves of the ancient people of Scotland, whose mysteries have been lost to the mists of time.

Great stone structures older than stonehenge, which were once the tombs of the first people to tame the land, cultivate crops and build settlements.

Called chambered cairns, or passage tombs, these crumbling relics still dot the landscape today, forgotten markers of a past so distant it is beyond even myth and legend.


But now a new study is to focus on uncovering the secrets of who built these stone structures and exactly when Scotland first began to transition into settled society and away from the hunter-gatherer tribes of man’s genesis.

Key questions will hopefully be answered in the probe, with a focus on dating exactly when they were built by examining the faintest traces left behind by their architects.

Thanks to a large bequest left to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland by the late Audrey Henshall OBE, £50,000 has been awarded to Archaeology Scotland for a new project entitled Scotland’s Earliest Megalithic Monuments.

The remains of the neolithic chambered cairn Cairn Holy II. Near Creetown, Kirkudbrightshire, Scotland. (Image: Scotstarvit) Found across western Scotland, the islands, Ireland and along the coast of Wales, these ancient monuments are similar to sites in north-west France.

Because they appear at the same time as the first evidence of farming in Scotland, experts currently believe that these monuments were built by Scotland’s first farmers somewhere between 6,300 and 5,800 years ago (c. 4300 BC to 3800 BC) at the start of the Neolithic period.

The change from mobile hunting-gathering to a more settled farming way of life was the point in Scotland's history where core elements of our current society began, such as a more sedentary lifestyle and substantial stone architecture.

The project will study sites suspected to be the remains of stone tombs at multiple locations over the next two years, including ones in Argyll and Bute, the Outer Hebrides and the Highlands, with additional activity in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The structures are arguably the earliest stone-built megalithic monuments in Britain, but few have been scientifically dated to a precise time period.

The Scotland’s Earliest Megalithic Monuments project will carry out small scale excavations at a handful of sites to find material such as the remains of ancient bones or charcoal from burnt plants or nuts.

This will be analysed through radiocarbon dating, in the hope the complex web of chemicals can pinpoint how long ago the structures were made.

Audrey Henshall Image: Society of Antiquaries of ScotlandDr Helen Spencer, Head of Research at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, said: “This was a hugely important time in Scottish prehistory, which is why it's so crucial that we address the gaps in our knowledge.

“There’s been a lot of debate about the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farming, including how much was due to migration during the Neolithic period and if any of the changes were driven by local populations who took on and adapted to this new way of life.

“If we can date and sequence the building of these tombs, we can more precisely date when these first farmers (probably from northern France) arrived and therefore the start of farming in Scotland and how fast it spread from the continent.

She added: “These results would help answer what are arguably some of the biggest questions in Scottish archaeological research.”

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Local communities will have the opportunity to help uncover this chapter of Scotland’s story by getting involved with surveying and excavating the monuments.

The project also hopes to identify opportunities for enhanced management and interpretation of these internationally important sites going forward, while improving documentation for local communities and people further afield by creating photogrammetric models of the Scottish examples which will be available for free online.

Audrey Henshall was a British archaeologist known for her pioneering work on Scottish chambered cairns. Henshall left the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland a bequest of £100,000 when she passed away in 2021 to fund projects that would develop and undertake impactful research on pre-Roman archaeology in Scotland.

This is the first grant to be awarded from this legacy, and additional awards will be available in future years.

A Community dig (Image: Archaeology Scotland) Dr Simon Gilmour, Director at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, said: “By leaving a gift in her will, Audrey Henshall made a lasting contribution to the future study of Scotland’s past, and the Society is thrilled to award this first grant to Scotland’s Earliest Megalithic Monuments.

“As their application stated, Archaeology Scotland’s project will honour, ‘through research and public engagement on Early Neolithic megalithic monuments, the legacy of Audrey Henshall and [celebrate] her major contribution to Neolithic archaeology.”

Dr Gavin MacGregor FSAScot, Director at Archaeology Scotland, added: “Archaeology Scotland are exceptionally grateful to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for supporting the Scotland’s Earliest Megalithic Monuments project through their Audrey Henshall Legacy Fund.

“This grant will allow us to support more communities to learn about and care for Scotland’s monuments, building on our existing Adopt-a-Monument scheme.

“The results of our investigations will enable us to more widely tell stories of those who built them and together celebrate the pioneering work which Audrey championed to advance their study.”