n feet
high, in the parish of Colinton." Maitland (_History of Edinburgh_, p.
507), and Mr. Whyte (_Trans. of Scottish Antiquaries_, vol. i. p. 308)
designate this monument the Caiy-stone. "Whether this (says Maitland) be
a corruption of the Catstean I know not." The tall monolith is in the
neighbourhood of the cairns called the Cat-stanes or Cat-heaps (see
preceding note). Professor Walker, in an elaborate Statistical Account
of the Parish of Colinton, published in 1808, in his _Essays on Natural
History_ describes the Cat-heaps or cairns as having been each found,
when removed, to cover a coffin made of _hewn_ stones. In the coffins
were found mouldering human bones and fragments of old arms, including
two bronze spear-heads. "When the turnpike road which passes near the
above cairns was formed, for more than a mile the remains of dead bodies
were everywhere thrown up." Most of them had been interred in stone
coffins made of coarse slabs. To use the words of Professor Walker, "Not
far from the three cairns is the so called 'Caiy-stone' of Maitland and
Whyte. It has always, however (he maintains), been known among the
people of the country by the name of the Ket-stane." It is of whinstone,
and "appears not to have had the chisel, or any inscription upon it."
"The craig (he adds) or steep rocky mountain which forms the northern
extremity of the Pentland Hills, and makes a conspicuous figure at
Edinburgh, hangs over this field of battle. It is called Caer-_Ket_an
Craig. This name appears to be derived from the Ket-stane above
described, and the fortified camp adjacent, which, in the old British,
was termed a Caer." (P. 611.)]

[Footnote 205: See "Annales Cambriae," in the _Monumenta Hist.
Britannica_, p. 833.]

[Footnote 206: In Maitland's time (1753), there was a farm-house termed
"Catstean," standing near the monument we are describing. And up to the
beginning of the present century the property or farm on the opposite
side of the Almond, above Caerlowrie, was designated by a name, having
apparently the Celtic "battle" noun as a prefix in its composition--viz.,
Cat-elbock. This fine old Celtic name has latterly been changed for the
degenerate and unmeaning term Almond-hill.]

[Footnote 207: _Historia Ecclesiast._, lib. i. c. xii. "Sermone Pictorum
Peanfahel, lingua autem Anglorum Penneltun appellatur."]

[Footnote 208: _Historia Britonum_, c. xix. At one time I fancied it
possible that the mutilated and enigmatical