Cat Stane

The earliest description of the Cat Stane was made by the Welsh scholar Edward Lhuyd in 1699 who described it as standing on a pavement of flat stones surrounding the remains of a low oval cairn. The first excavation of the stone's vicinity was conducted in 1860. Further excavation took place in 1864 and, most recently, 1977 when it was unsuccessfully proposed that the stone be removed from the grounds of Edinburgh airport. These excavations showed that the Cat Stane was surrounded by a series of burials in stone-lined graves known as cists. RCAHMS interprets the Cat Stane as a Bronze Age site re-used for burials in the fifth or sixth centuries.

The Cat Stane is an irregular standing stone of 1.3m height. It is heavily weathered but preserves an inscription in Latin, with several lacunas. The inscription, carved in a rough Latin script appears to read: This is interpreted by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) as representing: <gallery mode="packed-hover" heights="180pxr"> File:Cat Stane, Kirkliston, 1860.jpg| The Cat Stane illustrated in 1860 for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. File:Latin Inscription on the Cat Stane at Edinburgh Airport - geograph.org.uk - 1735742.jpg|Inscription on the stone </gallery>