Fig. 14. View of the Castle on the Isle of Loch Doch irt, as it now appears. By Thomas Ross, F.S. A. Scot.

probably in the sporran of one of the last occupants of the castle. An axe lay close by, but an ash-tree had sent such a strong root through it, where the shaft had been burned out, that it was split quite open. On the hearth-stone, as if in peaceful expectation of being picked up to mend the peat fire, lay an ancient pair of tongs shown in fig. 13. These are all the relics we found, and they are now safely stored away.

Throughout the whole of its progress the work of clearing out the ruins was most interesting, and now that it is finished, we have propped up the walls where necessary, and cemented loose stones and cracks, so that the castle on its little wooded island is now a picturesque object of interest and instruction; and I hope that this account may stir up other owners of castles to do their best for their preservation.

IV.

NOTES ON-(1) A DRINKING-CUP URN, FOUND AT BATHGATE; (2) A PREHISTORIC HUT IN TIREE; (3) A CAIRN CONTAINING SIXTEEN CINERARY URNS, WITH OBJECTS OF VITREOUS PASTE AND OF GOLD, AT STEVENSTON, AYRSHIRE; AND (4) PREHISTORIC BEADS OF COARSE VITREOUS PASTE. BY LUDOVIC M'LELLAN MANN, F.S.A. Scot.

1. NOTE ON A DRINKING-CUP URN FOUND AT BATHGATE,
LINLITHGOWSHIRE.

On 22nd March last Mr Arthur Hart, C.A., Glasgow, on the suggestion of Dr David Murray, showed me a fine drinking-cup urn which had been found about 22nd February last in a sand-pit near Bathgate. Soon thereafter I went and examined the place where the vessel had been found, and obtained information of the circumstances in which it was discovered from Mr William Houston, the workman who came upon it in digging sand, and from Mr Joseph Clayton, Manager of the Asbestic Sand Company, for which the sand is being excavated. The

VOL. XL.

24

sand-pit is about a mile east of Bathgate, 100 yards south of the North British Railway, and about 50 yards west of the road which leads to Blackburn. The vessel was found lying on its side, about 43 feet below the summit level of the natural bank of sand and gravel; but, as the sloping face of the bank had previously been cut away, no accurate measurements of the actual depth beneath the surface of the slope were

obtainable. I was told that the vessel contained nothing but sand, and that the sand above and around it appeared undisturbed, no traces of artificially placed pebbles or bones having been noticed.

The vessel (fig. 1) is an ovoid cup with recurved upper part, measuring 5 inches in height, and the same in its greatest breadth, 5 inches across the mouth, and 3 inches in diameter at the base. decoration has been produced by winding spirally round the exterior of the cup a thin, tightly twisted cord, and impressing it in the soft clay.

The

The cord has been wound round the vessel so closely as to give eleven or twelve lines surrounding it horizontally in the space of an inch of its vertical height. It has been thus passed thirty-three times round the upper part and twenty-three times round the lower part of the vessel, and three times round the inside of the rim, covering the interior surface to the depth of a quarter of an inch. At the widest part of the exterior is a plain, undecorated band an eighth of an inch in width, separating the upper part from the lower. Midway up the upper part the impressions of the cord have been blurred before the clay was fired, probably by the accidental pressure of the fingers, and here the artist has very neatly continued and imitated the lines of the cord impressions by putting in a series of little notches over the blurred area, using some pointed tool.

1

In the series of 172 photographs of drinking-cup urns compiled by Mr Abercromby (P.S.A.S., vol. xxxviii. pp. 325-410), the cups bearing horizontal string-markings, and no other decoration, form a compact group. No cups so decorated occur between Nos. 1-59 nor between Nos. 93-172, while fourteen of the cups solely string-marked occur between Nos. 59-93.2 Some of these fourteen, like the Bathgate vessel, were not, apparently, associated with sepulchral remains.

If this compact grouping be not a mere coincidence, it indicates some connection between the shape and the decoration of these cups, and may throw light on the chronology of this group of prehistoric pottery. It is a fact not hitherto recorded that string-marked "drinking-cups" are not uncommon in the Hebrides and the south-west of Scotland, of which a good many specimens are known to me. The Bathgate cup has been generously presented to the Scottish National Collection by the Governors of Daniel Stewart's Hospital.

1 The vessel most closely resembling the Bathgate vessel which I have been able to examine is No. 79 in Mr Abercromby's series, and is in the National Scottish Collection (Cat. E G., 39), and is referred to in P.S.A.S., vol. xxxvii. p. 231.

2 Of the fourteen, some have the markings continuous from rim to base without a break or plain zone. These are Nos. 70, 72, 82, 83, 84, 92, and 93; while a plain or vacant zone occurs on Nos. 59, 67, 69, 73, 77, 79, and (?) 86.

2. ON THE EXPLORATION OF THE FLOOR OF A PREHISTORIC HUT

IN TIREE.

On 15th July 1905, when walking over a sand-blown area between the sea and Loch Bhasapoll, Tiree, I noticed, at a point about 70 yards north from the north-west corner of the loch, a piece of pottery protruding from the soil. On clearing away the drifted sand there was found a hard, compact, dark layer or old surface. This would soon have become exposed by the blowing away of the superincumbent sand. The black layer was about 9 inches deep, covering a circular space about 8 to 9 feet in diameter. It lay upon a deposit of undisturbed pure white drift sand. With two assistants, and using a pocket-knife, the whole of the dark matter was patiently dug over and sifted by hand. There were found fragments of pottery representing at least five different vessels, two perforated discs of stone and eight implements of stone, and other interesting objects, all pointing to the place having once been an occupied site, probably a small circular dwelling.

The circular edge of the site was clearly marked towards the southwest edge, but towards the north-east the black layer or floor thinned out beyond the periphery. Here, probably, was the door. Beyond the site was pure white sand. Many of the implements and pottery fragments were found close to the wall at the edge of the floor. The pottery had been broken in ancient times, as shells adhered to the fractured edges. All the objects were embedded in the dark layer. No trace of a walling remained, but it was quite noticeable where the floor soil had accumulated against it. The walling may have been either portable or easily perishable.

The pottery vessels differ from the medieval and modern hand-made craggan of the Hebrides. Some have raised beadings or mouldings. Pottery with similar mouldings, placed horizontally and in festoons, and notched with the finger tip, has been found in the south of England, in graves of the Bronze Age. In Devizes Museum I recently examined Bronze Age pottery closely resembling some of the vessels from Tiree.