Historic cairn brought back to life

NEW images of an ancient cairn in Galloway show how the structure might have looked 6000 years ago.

An enormous pile of stones is all that now remains of the ancient chambered cairn of Boreland in Knockman Wood near Newton Stewart.

The structure was built around 6000 years ago by the Neolithic farming who made the area their home. Now a video of how the tomb would have looked has been created for Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS).

Archaeologist, Matt Ritchie explained: “The architecture of these chambered cairns suggests their use as both a tomb for the dead, where people placed the deceased in the chambers within the cairn, and a space for the living, where people could pay their respects within the forecourt.”

It is hoped that seeing the cairn come to life could answer some questions visitors might have. Matt added: “Of those that survive, some remain clothed, their secrets hidden beneath huge mounds of stone, such as at Boreland in Galloway. Some bear the ravages of time, their features masked by rubble and collapse. Some have been disturbed by treasure-hunters, their chambers ripped open and exposed. Some have been robbed of stone from their covering cairns and survive only as skeletal outlines.

“Thinking about how people in the early Neolithic experienced life and death can help us better appreciate our own experience of space, place and community.

“For while they may be far removed in time from our own ancestors, their lands are our lands, and we are not far removed in place. The chambered cairns of the North Channel remain an important connection between people and place across the millennia – markers of place, then and now.”