Groups of small cairns in northern Britain - a view from SW Scotland

A study of groups of small cairns in Dumfries and Galloway has provided an insight into some aspects of these unspectacular sites. Their role as funerary monuments is questioned, while the alternative agricultural interpretation is placed in a wider environmental and chronological context. The sites are considered against a Sub-Boreal and Sub-Atlantic background and, although the evidence is not always consistent, there are indications that they spanned both periods.