Digital copy of plan of chamber with measurements annotated 'No. 1' from excavations by Sir Francis Tress Barry. Verso: 'Chambered Cairn Yarhouse'.

Description Digital copy of plan of chamber with measurements annotated 'No. 1' from excavations by Sir Francis Tress Barry. Verso: 'Chambered Cairn Yarhouse'.

Date c. 1900

Collection Papers of John Nicolson, antiquarian, Keiss, Caithness, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 879406

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Watercolour of a chambered cairn at Yarhouse (Yarrows), Caithness, Highland Yarhouse, also known as Yarrows, is a landscape in eastern Caithness that is rich in archaeological remains. Within a small area there are numerous chambered cairns, great mounds of stones covering one or more burial chambers. These monuments were used many times for the burial of dead. Objects such as pots, arrowheads and animal bones were often placed inside the tombs as offerings. This watercolour by John Nicolson (1843-1934) shows a chambered cairn at the site of South Yarrows South. The site was excavated on numerous occasions throughout the 19th and early 20th-centuries. Like many Caithness cairns, the chambers were divided into compartments and the monument had two distinct 'horns' at each end. These horns possible marked a ceremonial area. Although the site was excavated previously by Joseph Anderson, Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907) and Nicolson investigated a tiny chamber in 1900. This plan of the site is particularly informative as it illustrates the wedge-shaped chamber and that there was an internal lengthwise division of slabs. The roofing lintels would have rested on these slabs. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap