October 19, 2023
Scotland

Windfarm site 200m from ancient graves

The Galloway News, 19 Oct 2023, STEPHEN NORRIS

Three more major windfarm projects are being proposed for the southern approaches to the Galloway Hills.

The proposed sites are at Lairdmannoch near Laurieston, Blair Hill in western Kirkcudbrightshire and Glenvernoch, over the Cree in Wigtownshire.

Having featured Lairdmannoch last week, the News visited the Blair Hill site on what was a glorious autumn day.

Two expeditions were required – to Garlies Castle in Old Minnigaff, the former seat of the earls of Galloway, and, higher up to the north, Nappers Cottage on the Moor of Drannandow.

The tumbled down castle, parts of which date back to the late 15th century, stands just 200 metres, according to developers RES’ map, from where the southernmost of up to 22 turbines is envisaged, with another a further 500 metres to the north.

From base to blade tip they would stand up to 250 metres tall (820 feet) – almost the same height as the Eiffel Tower.

The walk up to the ruined tower house takes in the former Cumloden Deer Park – fallow deer are still common here – a prominent cairn and skirts the ancient Knockman Wood, a semi-natural remnant of forests with once stretched across southern Scotland.

The proposed turbine site runs fully five kilometres (three miles) northwards to Larg Hill, the westernmost of the Galloway Hills, and measures three kilometres (two miles) west to east, taking in much of the Drannandow moor as well as forestry plantations.

The Garlies Castle walk completed, next stop is the Moor of Drannandow, where one is possessed by an overwhelming feeling of space and sky.

The Black Burn tumbles down to the right, bordered by ancient oak trees, and buzzards are up above, mewling and circling.

The moor has extensive areas of good pasture among the peat and reeds, which even after recent heavy rain is perfectly passable when exploring archaeological features away from the road.

Plentiful sheep and cattle of high quality still graze here, the latter encountered closer to Nappers Cottage.

The first of many Neolithic sites on the way up is Drumfearn Cairn, which shares its Gaelic title with a township in Sleat, on the Isle Skye, suggesting Scotland’s western fringe shares a common culture and heritage.

The name, ascribed to it perhaps 2,000 years after it was first built, means ridge of the alders – a clue that the area was once wooded.

It is one of three scheduled monuments within the proposed turbine zone and is mostly grassed over. Nearby in the circular promontory is a stone circle, only partially remaining, 100 metres to the north-east. The cairn and its size suggest a significant population once resided here, sustained by a thriving system of subsistence agriculture and hunting in once extensive woodland.

These monuments are of national significance, their proximity to each other suggesting this was a ritual and burial site of great importance. Old fence and dyke lines are everywhere, as are assorted sheep rees (sheepfolds), shepherd’s cairns and old homesteads.

The reason why this land was once wellpopulated, one suspects, is its sloping, sunny south-western aspect and excellent natural drainage. Larg Hill and Blair Hill stand to the northeast across the expanse of open moorland, wherein stand The Thieves, a pair of standing stones around 300 metres north-west of Nappers Cottage.

Each stand 2.2m high and are aligned approximately southwest to north-east, where the sun breaks the horizon on the summer solstice, June 21.

Interestingly, the stones are aligned with Drumfearn Cairn a short distance across the moor.

Nappers Cottage was once a fine house but is now open to the elements. Its absence from 1852 OS maps means it must have been built in late 19th century.

It has been abandoned for several decades so its life was short. Only yards away stands evidence that people were living here at least 6,000 years ago. Nappers Cottage chambered cairn is an important Neolithic burial site containing five burial chambers around two metres long by a metre wide.

Each is lined and roofed with great slabs.

The crude stone sarcophagi once contained the remains of high-ranking people.

Another chambered cairn, described on the 1852 map as Rorie Gill’s Cairn, has been greatly disturbed and no trace of any artefacts remain.

Here too is a burial chamber, this time complete with lid. This simple structure could well predate the pyramids of Egypt.

According to RES’ site layout, all but three of the envisaged 22 turbines would stand with 2.5 kilometres of The Thieves and the Nappers Cottage chambered cairns. Two would stand 500 metres from the scheduled monuments.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/10/19/windfarm-site-200m-from-ancient-graves/