CAIRN

A word of Celtic origin, used to denote the piles of stones of a conical form so frequently found on the tops of hills. . in various districts; erected probably, as Sir R. C. Hoare observes, in general, for the mere purpose of memorials, although some have a igned to them a peculiar character, as receptacles for the bodies of criminals burnt in the wicker images of the Druids, . According to some antiquaries, cairn is distinct from carnedd, the Welsh name for heaps of stones on the tops of high mountains (Carnedd David, Carnedd Llewellyn, ), which are said to have been sacrificial. Some cairns are undoubtedly sepulchral. In common language, a cairn is distinguished from a barrow, the former being a heap of stones, the latter a mound of earth; but in all probability they had for the most part the same object, and the difference of materials was merely occasioned by local circumstances. SeeBahrow. [s. 194]