Archaeology Notes

Event ID 693854

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/693854

NR25NW1 2482 5761

(NR 2482 5761) The turf covered remains of a chambered long cairn of the Clyde group lie in flat field almost at the edge of the raised beach. It has been heavily robbed and probably curtailed on the S, the cairn material now lying in uneven low humps 3ft in maximum height. The edges are irregular and indefinite. The remaining length is 70ft and the breadth across the chamber at least 71ft. Excavation in 1976 confirmed the former position of the facade at the NNE end and the fact that the chamber had been of four compartments. In front of the entrance was a deep pit into the edge of which a large sill had been placed. The cairn consisted of an inner core of massive slabs leaning against and in some cases oversailing the side stones of the chamber. This was revetted and partly covered by massive boulders, the whole being capped by a small-pebbled cairn. To the rear of the chamber was a pre-cairn flint scatter.

A S Henshall 1972; S J Pierpoint and P Harrington 1976.

A chambered cairn as described. It has been severely mutilated by excavation and is in a poor state of preservation.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (BS) 22 May 1978

Excavation at the rear of the chamber showed a rubble built mound of single period construction. Underneath was a "clean" old ground surface with a few flints. An occupation level with circa 2000 flints and charcoal lay below this. Dry stone walling 1-1.5m wide and 0.7m high was exposed on the E and W sides of the cairn; between the walls was packed rubble. A "stepped" edge to the cairn is suggested, and a date of circa 2650 BC from radiocarbon dates.

S J Pierpoint and P Harrington 1978