Early indications suggest that the first use of this site may have occurred during the Neolithic period, some 5,000 – 6,000 years ago. This earliest phase of activity is represented by a single cremation deposit (a small pit containing cremated human skeletal remains) which was deposited on a slight raised hillock in the landscape.
Some time later, probably as much as 1,000 years later (c. 2,000BC), a richly endowed single burial chamber was constructed on this slight natural knoll (cist L on plan, see end of this update note). A single young male (c.10-15 years old) was buried in this stone-lined chamber, and the whole structure was enclosed with a boundary ditch (it is possible that the grave was then covered by a massive earthen mound).
We know about this primary burial only from historic records and from the excavation evidence of a robbed out grave. Essentially, it appears that in 1944, a grave was accidentally discovered on this site during deep ploughing. No serious attempt was made to excavate or to examine the grave upon discovery and the site was left open for the curious to come and examine it for themselves. As a result, the grave site was essentially looted. Indeed, when, almost six months after discovery, a team of antiquarian/archaeologists from the National Museum of Antiquities (Edinburgh) came to visit the site, all that was found was a single fusiform jet bead and some fragments of disarticulated human bone.
This unfortunate situation came about despite the then landowner’s (Mr Christie of Durie House) determined attempts to have the site protected and properly excavated. Indeed, our only knowledge of this original discovery all due to Mr RL Christie’s diligent and responsible estate and record keeping and the preservation of his notes by his son and heir, Mr Peter Christie, who kindly relayed the details of the 1944 discovery to the Council’s Archaeological Unit.
Some time after the construction of the primary grave chamber on this site, a further five well constructed and richly endowed burials were placed surrounding the central grave. However, these were still all contained within the enclosure ditch .
At a slightly later period, but probably not later than 1,500BC, another four burials were interred just outside (and to the south) of the cemetery enclosure . The quality of the construction of these grave chambers and the quality and number of grave goods was significantly lower than the early earlier burials on this site. However, the fact that these individuals had still been marked out for burial within a stone chamber and within a cemetery complex, still means that these individuals must have been exceptionally important people within their Bronze Age communities.