Low Clone (north)
Low Clone North. A scatter of Mesolithic flints, recovered
between 1962 and 1964 from the South side of a ravine cutting the
raised beach deposits, are in Dumfries Museum. They were donated by
W F Cormack.
In an age before metal people used stone to make a sharp edge.
The sites where they worked are known as chipping floors, and are
sometimes still littered with stone. Some of it is waste, but
sometmes broken or lost tools are found. Not all types of stone are
suitable for making tools, and the knapper had to choose the raw
material carefully. The best stone was of uniform texture and had
no cracks or flaws.
The hunter gatherers had a good knowledge of the land and they
may have visited certain locations to build up reserves of useful
rocks. Flint is probably the best known of these rocks, but in
Scotland the supply is small. Beach flint from underwater beds off
the Isle of Man is common in Wigtownshire, but it becomes
progressively scarcer inland. An old cliff line relating to the
time of higher sea levels surrounds part of the Galloway peninsula,
and many mesolithic sites have been recorded here, particularly
around Luce Bay.
People settled on the high land above the beach, choosing
locations with fresh water and setting up camps in sheltered spots
slightly back from the cliff edge. Coastal sites have been traced
up the Solway as far as Redkirk Point, near Gretna, where a hearth
has been dated to 8000 years before the present. Evidence has also
been found for later settlements along the modern day
coastline.
http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/62725/