Monument record MHG32645 - Burial in cist - Glebe Terrace, Helmsdale

A stone-lined inhumation burial was uncovered by J Innes outside 4 Glebe Terrace, Helmsdale, on 16.02.1989, while excavating a pipe trench for a new water supply to the property. <1>

The recovery of the skeleton was subsequently supervised by Highland Regional Archaeologist, Robert Gourlay. It was the intention to send the remains for pathological examination. It was thought to date to the Bronze Age, with the stone-lining of the grave referred to as a cist. The point was made that the jaw displayed a perfect set of teeth. It was was likely that the cist (and presumably the bones) would be given to the Timespan Museum in Helmsdale. <2> <3>

A number of photographs appear to have been taken at the time, some by David Sim of Golspie and others by Robert Gourlay himself. Type-written notes attached to some of the photographs in the HER paper file state that the remains were those of a young adult, the grave was a metre deep, lined and covered by rough slabs and that it was aligned east-west and was therefore almost certainly from a Christian period.

There is a local tradition of burials being associated with a former mound to the north of this site - see MHG51525. <4>

The NGR was originally placed at the centre of Glebe Terrace but this has been adjusted from ND 0298 1536 as it is clear from the available photographs that the trench was outside the front door of 4 Glebe Terrace. <5>