CAIRNS, or Carnes, the vulgar name of those heaps of stones which are to be seen in many parts of Britain, particularly in Scotland and in Wales. They are composed of stones of all dimensions, thrown together in a conical form, a flat stone crowning the apex. Various causes have been assigned by the learned for these heaps of stones. They have been supposed to be, in times of inauguration, the places where the chieftain elect stood to show himself to best advantage to the people; or the spots from which judgment was pronounced; or erections by the way-side in honour of Mercury; or fabrics formed in memory of some solemn compact, particularly when accompanied by standing pillars of stones; or sites destined for the celebration of certain religious ceremonies. Such might have been the reasons, in some instances, where the evidences of stone chests and urns are wanting; but these are so generally found that they seem to leave little doubt that the most usual purpose of the piles in question was to serve as sepulchral monuments. But even this destination might render them suitable to other, particularly religious, purposes, to which by their nature they might be supposed to give additional solemnity. According to Toland, indeed, fires were kindled on the tops of flat stones, at certain periods of the year, particularly on the eves of the lst of May and the 1st of November, for the purpose of sacrificing; at which time all the people having extinguished their domestic hearths, rekindled them from the sacred fires of the cairns. In general, therefore, these accumulations appear to have been designed for the sepulchral protection of heroes and great men. The stone chests, the repositories of the urns and ashes, are lodged in the earth beneath; sometimes only one, sometimes more, are found thus deposited; and Mr Pennant mentions an instance of seventeen having been discovered under the same pile.

Cairns are of different sizes, some of them very large. Mr Pennant describes one in the island of Arran, as 114 feet over, and of a vast height. They may justly be supposed to have been proportioned in size to the rank of the person, or to his popularity. The people of a whole district assembled to show their respect to the deceased; and, by actively honouring his memory, soon accumulated [7:5:779] heaps equal to those that astonish us at this time. But these honours were not merely those of the day; as lonθ∙ as the memory of the deceased endured, not a passenger journeyed by without adding a stone to the heap. They supposed it would be an honour to the dead, and acceptable to his manes. To this day there is a proverbial expression among the Highlanders referable to the old practice; and a suppliant will tell his patron, “I will add a stone to your cairn meaning, “when you are no more, I will do all possible honour to your memory.”

Cairns arc to be found in all parts of the island, in Cornwall, Wales, and everywhere in North Britain. They were in use among the northern nations; and Dahlberg, in his 323d plate, has given the figure of one. In Wales they arc called carneddau ; but the proverb taken from them there is not of the complimental kind: Karn ar dy ben, “a cairn on your head,” is a token of imprecation.