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In January 1957 a ploughman struck a large stone with his plough. Looking under the stone he saw human bones. He had discovered a Bronze Age cist burial.
The cist was formed by four upright slabs which supported a capstone. Inside the cist was a human burial. The body was lying on its left side in a crouched position. With it was a pottery beaker and a bone ring. The beaker dates the burial to the Early Bronze Age.
Examination of the bones showed that they belonged to an adult male. He was aged around thirty when he died. The bones exhibited no signs of disease or injury.
This discovery in Mainsriddle, south west of Dumfries shows how some of the earliest people to live in this area treated their dead.