Cairnpapple Hill is home to a prehistoric monument. The plateau on the 312 metre high hill south of Linlithgow, was used as a burial ground and place of worship between around 3000 and 1400 BC. Excavations towards the end of the 1940s revealed the complete chronology of the elements on the mound.

The first activity on the mound consisted of the placement of three menhirs in the centre of an arc of small pits containing cremated human bones. This cemetery was located within an oval henge monument with a ditch and rampart built around 3000 BC, in which a circle of 24 menhirs was erected.

Centuries later, the type of use changed and burials took place in a chambered tomb, which was erected in the western section of the henge and covered by a round mound. The grave was the resting place of an important person whose face was covered with a kind of mask. Next to her lay a wooden club. A drinking cup lay at the head and foot of the grave. The stone mound was later enlarged to accommodate two urns.