Oblique aerial view centred on the remains of the square cairn cemetery with the remains of enclosures adjacent, taken from the N.

Description Oblique aerial view centred on the remains of the square cairn cemetery with the remains of enclosures adjacent, taken from the N.

Date 10/4/2003

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number SC 1699475

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of E 35368 CN

Scope and Content Laig Square Cairn Cemetery and Laig Farm from north, Eigg, Small Isles, Highland The island of Eigg is one of the Small Isles along with Canna, Rum and Muck. It lies 16km off the west coast of Scotland and has been inhabited since at least Neolithic times (c.4000-2500 BC). Eigg was bought in 1997 by its residents in conjunction with the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Highland Council. This shows Laig Bay (bottom) edged by storm beaches, with a row of square burial cairns (c.500-800 AD) visible in the centre right. Ridges produced by lazy-beds (farming in strips on land where nutrients were scarce) can also be seen (right). The circular feature (centre) may be the remains of an Iron Age roundhouse. The late 18th-early 19th-century farmhouse can just be seen (top right. Eigg lay on the frontier between the Picts to the north and east and the Scots of Dalriada to the South. At least fifteen square burial cairns have been found here. The choice of location, in a prominent position overlooking the bay, may have been as a statement of power it may have represented symbolic point at the boundary between land and sea. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1699475

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap