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Fairy Hillock is a Neolithic chambered cairn situated south-east of Spittal Mains in Caithness, Scotland. The monument is protected by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument under reference SM528. Built during the Neolithic period, roughly between 4000 and 3000 BC, chambered cairns of this type served as communal burial monuments for the communities who constructed them, their stone chambers designed to receive multiple interments over generations.
The cairn stands upon bedrock of Middle Old Red Sandstone, a conglomerate formation interspersed with sandstone, siltstone and mudstone dating to the Middle Devonian period. This local geology would have provided readily available stone for the monument's construction, with the harder conglomerate layers suitable for building the chamber and covering stones, whilst softer material could be quarried for the surrounding cairn mound.
Chambered cairns in Caithness represent a significant phase of Neolithic settlement and ritual practice in the far north of Scotland. The survival of Fairy Hillock reflects the enduring monumentality of these structures, their solid construction allowing them to persist across five thousand years of Caithness's windswept landscape. The monument's vernacular name, suggestive of folk belief in the supernatural, indicates how such ancient sites were perceived by later inhabitants of the region.
Fairy Hillock,chambered cairn SE of Spittal Mains is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM528. View the official record →
Fairy Hillock is a Neolithic chambered cairn situated south-east of Spittal Mains in Caithness, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM528.
Fairy Hillock,chambered cairn SE of Spittal Mains dates from the neolithic period, and is classified as a chambered cairn se of spittal mains. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Fairy Hillock,chambered cairn SE of Spittal Mains is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM528.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Ballone,broch 360m NE of,Spittal (1.6 km), Knockglass,broch E of (1.7 km), Dale Farm,broch 800m SE of (2.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Fairy Hillock,chambered cairn SE of Spittal Mains's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Fairy Hillock,chambered cairn SE of Spittal Mains stands on Middle Old Red Sandstone (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.