- Evidence for Neolithic religion and ritual as it survives in South West Scotland can perhaps best be described as a process of ‘altering the earth’ (Bradley 1993). Through most of this period, we can see how they modified their environment in a variety of ways. Certain places within the landscape were selected for the creation of monuments built from earth, stone or timber. Some of these monuments were substantial structures, which would have required the combined labour of considerable numbers of people to build them. On other sites, the modification of the landscape was restricted to the digging of pits, sometimes in groups or clusters, sometimes in isolation.
- The result of their efforts has been described as the ‘ritualisation of landscape’ by Julian Thomas (Thomas 1986). The larger monuments in particular would have formed prominent features, forming ever-present and enduring markers that served as the backdrop to everyone’s day-to-day lives. Their form and character changed as the Neolithic progressed, but one thing seems to remain consistent: certain locations were singled out as important and were repeatedly visited for the creation – and often also the re-working and remodelling – of monuments. Why this consistent modification took place is unknown. It could have been to do with reinforcing links between communities and the place they lived, or it could have been a way of remembering dead ancestors. The latter may have involved acts of commemoration, which also reinforced, or sometimes challenged, social relations between the living. It may have been a combination of these things, and it is entirely possible that the way in which people thought about these monuments and interacted with them changed over time.
- A conspicuous subset of these monumental structures is the chambered cairns and long cairns that occur in numbers across South West Scotland. They originated early in the Neolithic, with dates of 3700 BC recovered from the chambered cairn of Monamore and the long cairn at Lochhill.
- The character of these monuments varies across the region (Cummings 2003). Some consisted of a stone-built passage or passages, set within a long mound, and associated with an imposing facade. This group is known as the ‘Clyde’ cairns, and they are typical of western and southern coastal areas (Cummings 2016). Examples include the chambered cairns of Arran, such as Dunan Mor, Dunan Beg, Torrylin and Monamore (excavated first by Bryce around 1900 then re-excavated by Euan MacKie in 1961). Along the Solway coast, they include the chambered tombs of Cairnholy I and II, which were excavated by Piggott and others in the 1940s (Piggott and Powell 1951). Another group – known as the Bargrennan group – is associated with a round mound and was named after White Cairn, which was also excavated by Piggott in the 1940s. A third group, concentrated further to the east in Dumfries and Galloway, covers long cairns that are non-megalithic in character, such as at Lochhill and Slewcairn.
- In every instance, excavation showed that the construction of a modest timber or stone structure only marked the beginning of a long history of elaboration on these sites. Timber elements might be burned or left to decay, before mounds were added. Sometimes, timber structures were replaced by stone counterparts. In some cases, this re-use extends right to the end of the Neolithic and into the earliest Bronze Age. Sherds of Beaker pottery, coeval with the first use of copper artefacts, have been found from a number of chambered cairns and long cairns across the region. These include Cairnholy I and II, Mid Gleniron and Lochhill in Dumfries and Galloway, and Giants Graves I and II, Dunan Beag and Dunan Mor, all on Arran. There was no recurring regional pattern in the way different monuments developed throughout their long history of use and re-use. Instead, they evolved almost on an individual basis. Only detailed examination through excavation can reveal their complex histories, and create a unique biography which helps us understand how they may have been perceived and used.
- Cremation appears to have been the predominant way of disposing of the dead, but this may, at least in part, reflect the fact that burnt bone is more robust and enduring in the local soil conditions. Antiquarian reports certainly suggest that inhumation may have been practiced on certain occasions at some sites. At Margaret’s Law, Largs, for example, reports of finds of human bone made in 1772 were supported by 1954 excavations of the site, which recovered parts of two skulls and other human skeletal material (Henshall 1972). It is possible, however, that some – if not all – of this skeletal material may have derived from later inhumations placed within the chambers at the very end of the Neolithic and into the earliest Bronze Age. The sites of Dunan Mor and Dunan Beag on Arran, both excavated by Bryce around 1900, produced unburnt human bone in association with sherds of Beaker pottery (Wilson 2016). A more recent assessment of the skeletal material from Lochhill carried out by Alison Sheridan has, however, suggested that it may have been burnt in situ along with the early mortuary house, rather than being deliberately cremated (Sheridan 2023).
- On rare occasions, we find evidence for the deposition of cremated bones on sites that never saw the same degree of elaboration and enlargement as the chambered and long cairns did. Beckton Farm, near Lockerbie, is the most obvious example, with cremated human remains recovered from the remains of a burnt structure interpreted as a timber mortuary house (Cormack 1963). Although it lacked a monumental structure at the site, the presence of later pottery types suggests that it remained an important place for later generations who continued to acknowledge it, perhaps through acts of commemoration.
- Other evidence of ritual practice during the Neolithic is provided by a variety of large ceremonial monuments which might define extensive tracts of space within the landscape. Characteristic of the earlier Neolithic are cursus monuments: linear monuments which are variously defined either by earthen banks and ditches, by lines of pits, or by lines of pits which originally contained timber posts. Cursus monuments are typical of other early Neolithic monuments in that they are linear or rectilinear in form and make use of timber or earth as opposed to stone. Sometimes there is evidence that the timbers were burnt down at the end of these monuments’ lives, and sometimes there is evidence for the incorporation of human bone within the pits and postholes from which they are composed. Several areas within South West Scotland have revealed cursus monuments, including Drybridge near Irvine, Drumadoon on Arran and Curriestanes near Dumfries.
- Excavations carried out by Julian Thomas and others have shown how the character of these cursus monuments may change over time. Thomas excavated a cursus complex at Holywood, to the north of Dumfries, demonstrating the longevity of the site as a focus for ritual activity. Two probable phases of cursus were identified at Holywood North. Excavations also took place at a nearby post-alignment at Holm and a henge at Pict’s Knowe. Further examples may survive in fragmentary form. One such example is the line of postholes forming the only surviving stretch of what may once have been a much longer timber post-built alignment at Curragh South, near Girvan.
- Changes in monument types on the same site have been recorded at Dunragit, near Luce Bay (Thomas 2015). The monument complex included a large circular timber-built enclosure of Late Neolithic date, consisting of three concentric rings of posts, built in two phases. This circular enclosure superseded an earlier timber post-defined cursus monument, which was burnt down at some point. The entrance of the later circular enclosure appeared to be aligned on Droughduil, an earthen mound once interpreted as medieval, but now thought to be Neolithic in origin.
- During the later Neolithic, the use of large monumental structures continued, but the form of these changed. Curvilinear forms were introduced, with circular timber-post enclosures erected along with smaller timber circles, like those identified by Haggarty underlying Circle 1 at Machrie Moor. The use of cursus monuments also continued, but their character changed over time, with a shift from pit and post-defined structures to the monuments which – like the henges – were defined by a bank and ditch. Thomas argued that the earlier pit and post-built structures monumentalise the houses of the living, while the ditch and bank architecture instead monumentalises the houses of the dead (Thomas 2007c, 242).
- The use of timber post-built structures does, however, continue on into the Late Neolithic. The successors to the cursus tradition are known as avenues (Millican 2016). In plan, they tend to be shorter and wider than the earlier cursus monuments. One example cited by Millican within the region is the example excavated by Thomas at Holm. A wide range of much smaller post settings, increasingly recognised as cropmark sites (Millican 2016) may also represent another late Neolithic, or even early Bronze Age, development. As yet, sites of this kind remain largely unexplored and poorly understood.
- Another curvilinear form of monument which appeared late in the Neolithic was the henge. These are rare in the region, but examples have been identified at Pict’s Knowe and Broadlea, both near Dumfries. These comprise an enclosed area defined by a ditch, usually with an external bank created from the upcast. Like the ritual monuments of the earlier Neolithic, henge monuments appear to have been a means of defining space, and it has been argued that the places chosen had already been acknowledged as special or important in some way prior to their construction.
- One aspect of ritual and religious practice during the Neolithic that has become increasingly accepted in recent decades is the blurred line between ritual practice and routine, day-to-day activities. It has been suggested that the large ‘timber hall’ structures of the early Neolithic, originally interpreted as houses (such as the example from Lockerbie Academy), may instead have been unroofed rectilinear structures. Some appear to have been burnt in situ at the end of their lives, much like the post-defined cursus monument at Dunragit was.
- Similar examples of ‘domestic’ features which have now been highlighted as problematic are the isolated pits and pit clusters that are often interpreted as indicators of Neolithic settlement, otherwise lost. Many of these features appear to show evidence of ‘structured deposition’, where various categories of artefact (such as pottery, lithics and midden material) have been treated in specific ways (Noble 2016). It is possible that such pit clusters were created for the disposal of material generated during day-to-day life, but which had to be treated in certain ways. Rather than envisaging a sharp division between the ritual and the everyday in Neolithic life, we should perhaps instead envisage it as a continuum, with ritual practice underpinning many everyday activities, and certain occasions requiring a far more formal approach.
- Evidence for the structured deposition of material culture within pits has been found in association with cursus monuments including Curriestanes and at the circular timber post-built structure in Dunragit. Other sites are more ambiguous and feature groups of Neolithic pits – sometimes, but not necessarily, containing artefacts such as pottery and lithics – that occur in apparent isolation. These include – amongst numerous others – Montgomerie Park, Hunterston, Fox Plantation (MacGregor 1996), Hilltop and Monkton.
- One final way of ‘altering the earth’ which is evident in the Neolithic of South West Scotland is the prolific amount of rock art. Although it has been identified throughout the region, it is found most frequently in west and central Galloway, close to the Solway coast, with arguably its densest concentration occurring in the vicinity of modern Kirkcudbright. This rock art comprises cupmarks, often, but not necessarily, surrounded by rings, pecked onto prominent boulders or sheets of exposed bedrock. An unusual example from Ballochmyle in Ayrshire provides an interesting contrast with the norm, however, as the decoration occurs – unusually – on a vertical rock face.
- It is difficult to date, but the recovery of a fragmentary cupmarked stone from the chambered cairn of Cairnholy I during the excavations carried out by Piggott and Powell in the 1940s suggests a date coeval with the Late Neolithic and/or Early Bronze Age (Piggott and Powell 1951). A Neolithic origin seems likely, as concentrations of these markings often occur in areas which also see plentiful evidence for Neolithic activity. Thomas has however noted that those areas where large numbers of cup-and-ring markings occur do not appear to coincide with those which have revealed large complexes of Neolithic ritual monuments (Thomas 2015).
- Ritual monuments like the cursus monuments at Dunragit and Holywood, the henges at Pict’s Knowe and Broadlea and the timber/stone circles like those at Glenquicken Moor and Torhouskie in Galloway and Machrie Moor, Arran were – like the chambered cairns and long cairns – subsequently re-used and sometimes re-worked, not only in the closing phases of the Neolithic, but also later on, into the Bronze Age (see Chapter 6 Chalcolithic and Bronze Age). Examples of this re-use include the placing of a pit containing Beaker pottery within the cursus monument at Curriestanes (Wilson 2016) and the replacement of timber circles at Machrie Moor (I and II) with stone counterparts (Haggarty 1992).