Cairnpapple Hill

PricingHalf price in your first year of English Heritage membership, then freeEH memberHalf, then freeNon-member£8.50

EH members: half price, then freeInfo

Half price, then free, for English Heritage members

This place is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland. First-year English Heritage members get 50% off the ticket price; members who have renewed get in free. Bring your valid membership card, and any pre-booked tickets, to ensure entry.

Pre-booking is recommended at Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae, Stirling Castle, Blackness Castle, Urquhart Castle, Doune Castle and Maeshowe. Bookings are limited to six people per membership.
Bring the card itself: joint and family memberships admit the named holders only.
Historic Scotland does not offer reciprocal admission to National Trust properties, and a National Trust card is not accepted here.

More information

Entry

Non-member prices

Adult (aged 16 to 64)£8.50

Child (aged 7 to 15)£4.00

Concession (aged 65 and over)£6.80

Pricing details

In-person price; £7.50 booked online. One undated price table is published for the April to September season; recheck on reopening in 2027. Children under 7 free but need a ticket; up to two carers free per transaction; Young Scot card holders pay £1 online. Explorer Pass accepted in summer. No family ticket, joint ticket or audio guide. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

In-person price; £3.50 booked online; under-7s free with a ticket. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

In-person price; £6 booked online. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland says the lay-by parking is surfaced with rough tarmac. No charge or free statement is published, so the status is recorded as unknown; visitors describe a roadside lay-by with room for about three or four cars, reached by narrow lanes off the B792.

Driving pin: the lay-by at the foot of the access path, 300 m from HES's pin on the summit. Cairnpapple is about 2 miles from Torphichen. Historic Scotland names no bus service, only its journey planners.

About

Cairnpapple Hill crowns the Bathgate Hills, and for at least 4,000 years people came to its broad summit to hold ceremonies and bury their dead. The earliest traces are six hearths about 5,500 years old, with fragments of stone axes brought from Wales and Cumbria. In the Neolithic a great oval henge was raised here, a bank 60 metres across and a ditch enclosing a ring of 24 timber posts, whose holes you can still see. About 4,000 years ago a revered person was buried beneath a standing stone with a wooden mask and two Beaker pots, and later burials and a cairn 30 metres across followed, then early Christian graves. Today a modern dome covers the cairn, and visitors climb down a ladder inside to see the burials. On a clear day the views reach across the Forth Valley, perhaps even to Goat Fell on Arran. Park in the small roadside lay-by and climb the steep steps and field path to the summit.

ClosedPick a day for times and prices

Until 31 Mar: Closed
From 1 Apr: Daily 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30

Today, Saturday 24 October

Cairnpapple HillClosed

Opening times may change at short notice.

1 April to 30 September daily 10am to 4pm; may close for lunch; last entry 30 minutes before closing; closed 1 October to 31 March. Historic Scotland recommends booking an entry slot in advance to guarantee entry. No works notice on 18 October 2026. The site phone line is down; Historic Scotland asks for enquiries to Linlithgow Palace on 01506 842 896.

The site is about 500 m of rough uphill ground from the lay-by: six narrow, uneven stone steps with a handrail to a narrow kissing gate, a steep slope of 51 steps cut into the ground with a handrail, an uneven path across a cattle field that can be very muddy, another kissing gate and a loose gravel path. Two steep steps lead into the small visitor centre. The top of the cairn is up 14 stone steps without a handrail, and the interior is reached down a metal ladder of 11 rungs. No toilets on site; the nearest adapted toilet is at Beecraigs Country Park, 3.5 miles away. No shop or cafe. Guided tours in season. Dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas only.

Dogs: Dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas; not in the visitor centre or the roofed cairn interior (reached by ladder). The site is open only 1 April to 30 September.

Photo: The grassed burial cairn at Cairnpapple Hill ringed by kerb stones, with the henge's timber post holes in the foreground. Rosser1954, CC BY 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cairnpapple_Cairn_from_the_site_access_path,_Bathgate,_Scotland.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.