Cairns are either still found, or are known to have existed, in nearly every parish of Scotland. Many of these have been works of great labour, being regularly built of stones of considerable size, and approaching more to the character of a constructive pyramid, than of a mere stone tumulus or heap. Their form is most frequently conical, but several varieties occur, including occasionally, though rarely, the primitive shape of the long barrow. Ure describes two of this form, which were situated in the parish of Baldernoch, Stirlingshire, near a large cromlech, which still exists, styled, _The auld wives' lift_. The largest of these cairns measured sixty yards in length, and only ten yards in breadth. On its demolition it was found to cover a sepulchral chamber of about four feet in breadth, constructed of rows of broad stones set on edge, covered with large flat stones, and containing numerous human remains. In the other long cairn, which was opened in 1792, a similar chamber enclosed both urns and human bones. Various other cairns still remain unopened in the same district; and many of equal magnitude are to be met with in different parts of the country. The well-known antiquary, Mr. Joseph Train, furnishes an interesting account of several remarkable cairns in the parish of Minniegaff, Kirkcudbrightshire. One of these, called _Drumlawhinnie_, on the moor of Barcly, measures 891 feet in circumference. Another of equal dimensions, called the _Boss Cairns_, on the moor of Dranandow, which has been partially demolished to construct the neighbouring field inclosures, contains a sepulchral inclosure, similar to the cruciform chambers found in several of the most celebrated gigantic Irish cairns. It measures internally eighty feet in length, from the corresponding limbs of the cross each way, while it is only four feet wide and about three feet high. The stones in the middle of the cairn are very large, and are laid in regular courses, from the bottom to a considerable height, and become gradually smaller as they recede from the centre. The chamber of the _Grey Cairn_, on the neighbouring Drum of Knockman, closely resembles this in form and dimensions, and various others occur in the district. In one of them, called the _White Cairn_--which furnished a safe concealment to the Laird of Glencaird and his two sons, when pursued by Claverhouse for harbouring some of the persecuted Covenanters--some of the stones used in constructing the internal chamber are upwards of a ton weight each.[68] Pennant has preserved a variety of interesting details of the contents of cairns opened towards the close of last century. In one described by him on the hill of Down, near Banff, a chamber was found containing a large ornamented Celtic urn, with three smaller plain ones disposed around it. The whole were filled with ashes and burnt bones, in addition to which were flint arrow-heads, and two bone implements.