Site Report

WoSASPIN 21380

The following site in West Dunbartonshire has been identified and recorded during fieldwork carried out by the staff of WoSAS. Full details are available in the WoSAS SMR.
NS 3993 8517 - Black Roundel - Burial cairn with ?cist.
West of Scotland Archaeology Service 1997

At the north end, on the highest point of a long glacial mound aligned NNW to SSE and some 30-40m S of a fence line over a tumbled stone dyke. Erosion shows the mound to have an earthen rather than stony character, which suggests the stones may be artificially placed. There are very few other stones on the surface of the mound, and clearance is confined to the margins of the mound, on or near the enclosing dyke. There is a small patch of cairn material to the S of a large (1.5m across) slab lying flush with the ground and surrounded by a few other boulders.
Robins, P., Strathclyde SMR, 25/01/96

There is no cairn here. Black Roundel is the name given to a natural gravel mound on a SE-facing hillside. The 'cist' referred to in the previous report is a rock outcrop at the NW end of the mound.
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, SPH) 23 July 1999
Entered WoSAS (CF) 18/09/01

Black Roundel is probably a natural mound but with suspiciously straight sides and regular form. It is surrounded by a small earthen bank and would appear to have been altered to form a plantation enclosure, a designed landscape feature whose age is uncertain. The feature is not marked on OS first edition maps. It is aligned NNW-SSE and the higher N end the mound is broader and higher than the lower. Sheep scrapes along the flanks of the mound reveal an earthen make up. At the N end, at the centre top of the mound there is a large (c.1.5m across) flat-topped stone showing which lies flush with the ground level. Just S of it lies a small (c.3-4m across) patch where small loose stone can be felt under turf. Two or three other stones are apparent on the surface around about on the top of the mound in this immediate location but there does not appear to be any other stones visible on the mound. Some cleared field stone has been placed against the base of the mound. The sheep scrapes also suggest an earthen rather than a stony natural mound making the position and existence of the stones at the centre top seem artificially placed. The inclusion of the flat slab and the loose stones under turf all suggest a cist covered by cairn material, now robbed for dry stone dykes which run past the site nearby to the N. The site may have been a natural mound used for prehistoric burial and only excavation will be able to reveal the real nature of the site.
Entered WoSAS (PR) 01/04/2004