Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 55

A group of five urns containing cremated human remains were found in a cluster at Kingskettle. One of the deposits included two barbed arrowheads which were calcined. It is suggested that the arrowheads may have been the cause of death of the associated individual. A very well constructed short cist contained the remains of a mature adult male. He was accompanied by a small thin plate of corroded iron.

The ruined castle stands on a rocky promontory on the Berwickshire coast. Only parts of the keep and the surrounding walls now survive. An account of the ownership and history of the castle is presented along with plans and pictures, the earliest of which dates back to 1549. It is not clear who was responsible for the construction of the castle though during the fourteenth century the castle appears to have been sometimes in the hands of the Scots and sometimes in those of the English.

An account of three cup-marked stone outcrops and the local legends traditionally attached to them.

During excavation the inner court as well as two small cells, a staircase, and the greater part of a gallery, all within the thickness of the wall, were cleared out; also, a section of the outer face of the wall on the southern arc, which was obscured by fallen stones, was laid bare. An interesting assortment of relics in stone, pottery, glass, and metal was recovered. These included rotary querns, a stone cup, an iron knife and a glass armlet. A number of items were much later in date and not linked to the main period of occupation of the broch.

The five ruined castles are all situated in the valley of the Aberdeenshire Don. With the exception of Tillycairn, no architectural description or plan of any of them has yet been published, and the notes and sketches of Tillycairn are not reliable. All five castles are excellent examples of the different types of fortified mansions, or "houses of fence," which were being constructed during the last half of the sixteenth century. In addition to Tillycairn, the castles at Pitfichie, Balfluig, Asloun and Culquhonny are described with accompanying plans.

A round cairn at East Lyne overlaid a stone-built short cist which contained two fragments of charcoal and one of bone. An adjacent cist had been previously removed. The round cairn at Chapelton is the last surviving of a group of three. It appears undisturbed. A cross in the graveyard at Kirkmichael is roughly hewn of local whinstone. It has rounded corners and in the centre of the head on either face is a circular cavity.

The paper describe mortsafe tackle at Inverurie, mortsafes at Oyne and Auchlossan, watch-houses at Nigg and Dyce, and public vaults at Culsalmond and Marnoch. The mortsafes which were so frequently in use about a century ago were intentionally made very heavy to prevent their removal or destruction by unauthorised persons who might wish to gain access to the bodies they protected. Therefore for lowering them into position in the grave at the time of burial, and for lifting them out again when all danger of body-snatching was past, strong tackle was required. Auchlossan possesses two mortsafes, both of the iron, coffin-shaped variety. The mortsafe at Oyne had not been constructed for the use of the public, but was made for a single private burial, and this accounted for its somewhat weak construction. In the corner of the churchyard at Nigg there is a small building formerly used as a watch-house, but now kept as a storeroom for the tools required by the gravedigger. A watch-house was erected in the south-east corner of the churchyard at Dyce. At Culsalmond a two-storied building stands in the north-west corner of the churchyard. Its lower portion consists of a vault which was built for the purpose of storing coffins in safety till the bodies they contained were useless for anatomical purposes. In the churchyard of Marnoch, Banffshire, there is a vault, almost entirely underground, over which a second story has been built like that at Culsalmond. A flight of ten steps leads down to the entrance, just above which a stone tablet has been built into the wall, bearing the words " Built by Subscription in the year 1832. Addition 1877."

Recent discoveries come from the parishes of Jurby, German and Braddan and include plain incised crosses along with two of Celtic design.

It has previously been considered that the tax called the " Wattel formed (in the case of Orkney) a payment to the parish bailies, or (in the case of Shetland) to the corresponding underfouds. The word probably derives from veizla ( = veitsla), the\r\nreception or entertainment which the Norse kings, or their barons and stewards, were entitled by law to exact from the landowners of the different districts visited. In Orkney the earl would, of course, take the place of the king, and that this obligation should then crystallise into a tax, and its name be corrupted from "veitsla" into "wattel," seem very natural developments. The earliest documentary evidence is contained in the grants of the island of Burray to the Bishop of Orkney in 1494, and of the lordships of Orkney and Shetland to Lord Sinclair in 1501, and in Lord Sinclair's rentals of 1492 and 1502-03.

The hoard consisted of a mass of coins adhering to one another firmly. Probably the money had been contained in a bag of canvas or leather, which had rotted away completely in the course of centuries. The total was made up of 18 pieces of gold, 611 of silver, and 499 of billon (an alloy that contains gold or silver with copper or another base metal). The hoard must have been concealed not long after the accession of James IV in 1488. He is the latest king represented, and his coins are relatively very few in number.