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Burrow Head

Dumfries and Galloway geography stubsHeadlands of ScotlandLandforms of Dumfries and GallowayWigtownshire
Burrow Head geograph.org.uk 3001672
Burrow Head geograph.org.uk 3001672

Burrow Head is a headland located approximately two miles south-west of Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire, Scotland, and is the second southernmost point of Scotland (after the Mull of Galloway). St. Ninian's Cave is approximately two miles north-west along the coast. It is an important location for pilgrims who believe that St. Ninian spent some time on retreat there.Burrow Head's location and relative seclusion meant that during the eighteenth century it became associated with smuggling, from and to the Isle of Man (fifteen miles south) and Ireland.In more recent years, Burrow Head became famous as a location for the 1973 thriller film The Wicker Man. Until recently the stumps of the prop used as the wicker man in the film remained visible, but these have been gradually eroded by souvenir hunters. Today much of Burrow Head is occupied by a caravan park.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Burrow Head (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 54.677777777778 ° E -4.3936111111111 °
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Address

Cutcloy


DG8 8JA
Scotland, United Kingdom
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Burrow Head geograph.org.uk 3001672
Burrow Head geograph.org.uk 3001672
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Nearby Places

Rispain Camp

Rispain Camp is the remains of a fortified farmstead 1 mile west of Whithorn, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is one of the major Iron Age archaeological sites in Scotland. The property is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Access is through a farm off the A746 South of Whithorn. The name Rispain may derive from a local equivalent of the Old Welsh word rhwospen meaning 'the chief of the cultivated country', a name certainly appropriate to as prestigious a farm as this. Today it consists of two broad earth banks separated by a ditch, originally almost six metres deep surrounding an enclosure of almost half a hectare. Its defences are so well preserved that until the mid-1970s archaeologists believed the site to be either a Roman fort or mediaeval farmstead. However excavations in the early 1980s provided evidence that it was inhabited between the 100 BC and 200 AD by local Celtic farmers. Radiocarbon dating has provided evidence that the site was definitely occupied around 60 BC.Excavation revealed traces of a timber gateway to the north east, which would probably have been connected to a timber stockade running along the top of the inner rampart. There was also evidence of large timber roundhouses inside the enclosure, one of which is thirteen and a half metres in diameter. In the ditch's south eastern corner excavation uncovered a square pit, possibly a cistern. Cattle, sheep and pigs were kept and hunting in the surrounding countryside provided venison. Barley and wheat may not just have been used as foodstuffs but also, in the case of barley, used in the brewing of alcohol.