Showing posts with label waddled.blink.slurping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label waddled.blink.slurping. Show all posts

Tuesday 7 June 2022

Skulferatu #72 - Huly Hill Cairn and Standing Stones, Newbridge, Edinburgh

 

Today I took a trip out to a place I must have gone by many times, but never even knew existed until it was pointed out by a friend.  Huly Hill Cairn is a place passed unnoticed daily by thousands of motorists, though it stands just a few metres away from Newbridge Roundabout where two motorways, the M8 and the M9 join. In fact the site is surrounded on all sides by roads, industrial units, car dealerships and housing, while up above large passenger jets fly overhead as they take off from nearby Edinburgh Airport.  Huly Hill Cairn is a site where not only does ancient society meet with modern society, it crashes straight into it.

 

A photo showing a field and a low mound with a wall running around it (Huly Hill).  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Huly Hill Cairn

 

Huly Hill Cairn is believed to be around three and a half thousand years old, and it stands at three metres in height and is thirty metres across.  A stone retaining wall was built around the cairn in the 1830s.  There is some argument that rather than being classed as a cairn the hill is in fact a tumulus, an ancient burial mound.

 

A photo showing a field and a low mound with a wall running around it (Huly Hill).  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Huly Hill Cairn

 

A photo showing a view over some daffodils to a standing stone with Huly Hill Cairn in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View of Huly Hill Cairn and Standing Stone

 

A photo showing a view over some daffodils to a standing stone with Huly Hill Cairn in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View of Huly Hill Cairn and Standing Stone

 

It would appear that there was once a stone circle around the cairn, though how many stones this originally consisted of is unknown, with only three standing stones now remaining.  Like much in ancient history the purpose of the cairn and the stones is now lost to time. 

 

A photo showing a slightly phallic looking standing stone with Huly Hill Cairn in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing Stone by Huly Hill Cairn


A photo of a standing stone with trees in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing Stone by Huly Hill Cairn

 

A photo of a standing stone with Huly Hill Cairn in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Standing Stone by Huly Hill Cairn

 

In 1830 the cairn was opened up and from it was recovered a bronze spear head, fragments of animal bones and a heap of animal charcoal.  Then, in 2001, an archaeological examination took place at a nearby site prior to a construction project.  During excavations there an iron age chariot burial was discovered.  Some of the wood from the wheels was radiocarbon dated and this showed that the chariot must have been constructed between 475 to 380 BC, making it the oldest discovered chariot burial in Britain.  A reconstruction of the chariot was created by Robert Hurford and is now on view at the National Museum of Scotland.

 

A photo showing Huly Hill Cairn with lots of white fluffy clouds above in the sky.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Huly Hill Cairn

 

A photo showing Huly Hill Cairn with a plane passing over from nearby Edinburgh Airport.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Plane from Edinburgh Airport passing over Huly Hill Cairn

 

As I wandered around the cairn site traffic growled along the nearby busy roads and planes roared above as they took off from the airport.  However, there was something quite peaceful and tranquil about the site.  A murder of crows hopped and jumped in the newly cut grass around the cairn, searching out insects and other food morsels. Watching this scene, I could easily imagine that though the landscape has changed dramatically since the construction of the cairn, the ancestors of these crows could well have been foraging around the same site thousands of years before.  In a time when much of the surrounding country would have been woodland and the only roads would have been well trodden dirt paths.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk in a gap in the retaining wall around the cairn.

 

A photo of a hand holding up a small, ceramic skull (Skulferatu 72).  In the background is Huly Hill Cairn.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #72

 

A photo of a small, ceramic skull (Skulferatu 72) sitting in a gap in the wall that is around Huly Hill Cairn.   Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #72 in a gap in the wall

 

A photo of a small, ceramic skull (Skulferatu 72) sitting in a gap in the wall that is around Huly Hill Cairn.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #72 in a gap in the wall

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #72 at Huly Hill in Newbridge, Edinburgh
Map showing location of Skulferatu #72

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.938618

Longitude -3.404986

 

I used the following sources for information on Huly Hill Cairn and the surrounding standing stones –

 

The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland

By Daniel Wilson

1851

 

Exploring Scotland’s Heritage, Lothian and Borders

John R Baldwin

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland

1985

 

National Museums of Scotland

National Museums Scotland - Newbridge Chariot

 

Canmore

Canmore - Huly Hill, Newbridge