Site: Kirkliston

Name:Kirkliston (n/a) [Also: Catstane] CISP No:KLSTN
Place:Kirkliston (n/a) Grid Ref:NT 1489 7437 (GB)   Map
Parish:Kirkliston (n/a) Stones:1
County:Mid-Lothian , Scotland Saint(s):none
Site Type:cemetery

Site Notes

The site is now part of Edinburgh (Turnhouse) Airport.

Rutherford/Ritchie/1972, 183: `75m from the right bank of the River Almond at some 600m NNE of Boathouse Bridge, and the same distance NW of the terminal complex'.

Cowie/1977-78, 166: `Prior to the construction of the present E-W runway at Edinburgh, the stone stood in cultivated ground outside the airport perimeter. Since the construction of the runway, however, the stone has become virtually inaccessible to the general visitor, isolated by the construction of the flightpath some 70m away on the south, and by the erection of the airport perimeter fence on the north, alongside the bank of the River Almond'.

See detailed map in Cowie/1977-78, 167, and Thomas/1992, 2, for a more general map.

Cowie/1977-78, 166--201, argues that the stone may originally have stood as part of a circle of stones, but it is unlikely to have been the Bronze-Age kerbed cairn argued for by Rutherford/Ritchie/1974, 186--187.

Cowie/1977-78, 166--201, notes that the stone stands as part of a long-cist cemetery of at least 80 burials, mostly aligned E--W, but with those closest to the stone alternately aligned. Radio-carbon dates from the cists range from AD 400+/-100 to 650 +/-130. Some of the burials also had wooden grave-markers, although the intrusion of some cists into older cists argues that this practice may not have been too widespread. It also argues for a relatively long period of use for this cemetery.

References

Stones