Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016999
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016999
None of the small number of chambered cairns in Tayside is well preserved or readily accessible, but the location and unusual length of the cairn at Clach na Tiompan make it an interesting site to visit. Situated on a terrace some 15 m above the north bank of the River Almond, the cairn must have formed the centre of the religious life of a small farming community. Some sense of the duration of this activity is given by the fact that the long cairn is almost certainly a structure of several periods, because four burial chambers have been incorporated into its small length,although their sequence of building is a matter of conjecture.
The cairn, aligned north-west and south-east is some 57 m long and up to 11.5 m broad at its south-east end. The best-preserved chamber was found near this end; the main compartment was composed of four large slabs and a capstone with two small compartments leading from an impressive facade of upright slabs on the south-west The final blocking of the entrance was still in position, as shown on the photograph, with six slabs carefully wedged into position to prevent access to the tomb. No burial remains were discovered, as the tomb had been rifled perhaps when the road was built in the last century.
About 43 m to the south of the long cairn (on the south side of the road), a standing stone and the stump of a second are the remains of one of the distinctive 'four-poster' settings of Perth shire; excavation revealed the positions of the missing two stones.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
