cairn
/kɛːn
/noun
1A mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark, typically on a hilltop or skyline.Elation was to glimpse limp prayer flags and rough cairns with goat horns that marked the pass....
- Now, their pyramid-shaped middens, or mussel-shell dumps, stand along the coastline like memorial cairns.
- Twelve stone cairns decorate the otherwise bare summit of Castle Dow, a tree - clad hill which lies in the clench of the River Tay just south of Grandtully.
1.1A prehistoric burial mound made of stones: a chambered cairn...
- Skara Brae is a well-preserved prehistoric village, Maes Howe the best of a series of impressive prehistoric burial cairns, and numerous brochs and settlements attest to the islands' Pictish and Viking periods.
- Caithness is well known to archaeologists for its Neolithic chambered burial cairns.
- South of the fort is a cross-ridge dyke, and in the area traversed by the path there are burial cairns and prehistoric field boundaries.
2 (also cairn terrier) A small terrier of a breed with short legs, a longish body, and a shaggy coat.If the German Shepherd and Doberman stood on top in their numbers, the breeds like the wire-haired fox terrier, smooth-haired fox terrier, cairn terrier and Rhodesian Ridgeback were all loners....
- We had an awesome cairn terrier / Jack Russell mix that was preternaturally intelligent, capable of stunning tricks (including climbing trees), but he wouldn't fetch a stick for any reward.
- Much of the known early history of the cairn terrier, like that of the Skye terrier, centers on the island of Skye.
Perhaps so named from being used to hunt among cairns
Origin
Late Middle English: from Scottish Gaelic carn.