In 1909 a cremation burial was found in a boat-shaped stone setting under mound (now with the excavation trench through it). It included a mid-late 9th century whalebone plaque, a Northumbrian styca of Archbishop Wigmund (837-54), and items suggesting a casket. It is within metres of a circular fort (‘dun’) on a high promontory (24m) south of Lamlash Bay, where another burial was found. The dun and stone-setting are made of red sandstone, which is not available locally, so the dun may have been ‘robbed’ to create the burial setting. The boat points towards Holy Island. This is one of the most prominently positioned burials in Scotland and would have been visible to passing boats.
GPS: N 55° 30.555, W 005° 04.809
NGR: NS 0559 2825
J.A. Balfour, 1909, ‘The ecclesiastical remains on the Holy Island, Arran’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 43: 371-5.
