Cairnpapple Hill Magnets

Cairnpapple Hill is one of the most important prehistoric sites on mainland Scotland. Here you can see a 1949 reconstruction of a 4000 year old burial site and a 1990s communications tower, the very old and the very new. The archaeology on the main site here spans a remarkable period of some 4000 years of activity, from about 3500 BC through to c.500 AD, with its major features being a Neolithic henge and circle, followed by a series of three Bronze Age cairns with cist burials, and a Late Iron Age cemetery. Cairnpapple was used from about 3,000 BC to 1400 BC firstly as a ceremonial site then several centuries later as a burial site. 5000 years ago, or around 3000BC, our Neolithic ancestors built a henge here.

The view looking West North West from the top of Cairnpapple Hill in West Lothian, Scotland. At 310m or just over 1000ft in height the hill offers one of the best viewpoints in Central Scotland. In the centre of the shot is the village of Torphichen which contains Torphichen Preceptory, the sole Scottish link with the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Camera: Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi in the USA) BEST VIEWED LARGER Three bracketed JPGs converted to HDR in Photomatix Pro.

The view looking North from the top of Cairnpapple Hill in West Lothian, Scotland. At 310m or just over 1000ft in height the hill offers one of the best viewpoints in central Scotland. In the centre of the shot on the southern banks of the River Forth is the town of Grangemouth (where joak of RB fame resides). Grangemouth would be a pleasant place to live except that the town is dominated by the extremely large Grangemouth Oil Refinery with its numerous gas flares and cooling towers visible across a wide area of the Scottish Lowlands (look on joak's page for examples). Cairnpapple Hill is situated in the Hilderston Hills within the western range of the Bathgate Hills in the parish of Torphichen, West Lothian, in south-east Scotland.

The view looking North from the top of Cairnpapple Hill in West Lothian, Scotland over the River Forth to the Kingdom of Fife. At 310m or just over 1000ft in height the hill offers one of the best viewpoints in central Scotland. Cairnpapple Hill is situated in the Hilderston Hills within the western range of the Bathgate Hills in the parish of Torphichen, West Lothian, in south-east Scotland. Cairnpapple Hill also contains one of the most significant prehistoric monuments in Scotland. On the right you can see Cockleroy Hill, a conspicuous crag-and-tail rising steeply from the west to a height of 278m (912 feet) in the northwest of Beecraigs Country Park, 2 miles (3 km) northeast of Torphichen.