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Green Hill is a cairn located in Fife, Scotland, protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM796. The monument sits upon Devonian bedrock composed of mafic lava and mafic tuff, geological formations that reflect the volcanic activity that shaped this region during the Devonian period, some 400 million years ago. This volcanic foundation would have presented a landscape of dark stone outcrops familiar to the prehistoric builders who constructed the cairn.
The cairn represents a funerary or ceremonial monument type characteristic of Bronze Age Scotland, constructed by piling stone into a distinctive mound. The local geology would have provided readily available stone for its construction, with the mafic volcanic rocks of the immediate bedrock naturally suited to the building of such monuments. The choice of this location on the Devonian bedrock may reflect both practical access to suitable materials and the ceremonial significance of particular landscape features in Bronze Age ritual practice.
Today, Green Hill remains an important archaeological witness to the prehistoric use of the Fife landscape and to the monumental practices of Bronze Age communities in eastern Scotland. Its protection recognises the value of such monuments in understanding the cultural and spiritual lives of ancient peoples, and the landscape transformation they effected across the Scottish uplands.
Green Hill,cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM796. View the official record →
Green Hill is a cairn located in Fife, Scotland, protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM796.
Green Hill,cairn 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 SM796.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Mountquhanie Castle,70m NE of Mountquhanie House (1.7 km), Creich Castle (2.2 km), Creich,St Devenic's Church (2.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Green Hill,cairn'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.
Green Hill,cairn stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Silurian To Devonian, bedrock that formed in the Devonian. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.