Laser Scanning

Date 18 March 2015

Event ID 1026086

Category Recording

Type Laser Scanning

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1026086

NS 2094 5859 A laser scan survey of Haco’s Tomb was undertaken on 18 March 2015 for conservation management purposes. The survey was undertaken using a Trimble FX laser scanner controlled using spherical targets, located using a Trimble S6 total referenced to OS grid using a Trimble R6

GPS. Interpreted detail was surveyed in the field using the Trimble S6 total station, on the same grid as the control survey, allowing interpretation to be overlain on the laser scan data.

The Clyde type chamber of Haco’s Tomb lies on a broad terrace of the general W-facing slope above the town of Largs in a clearing in scrubby woodland with housing to the immediate W.

The western of the chamber compartments is intact with a capstone 2.5m by 1.8m sitting on three upright slabs. This intact compartment is separated from the rest of the chamber by a septal slab leaving a gap 0.4m high. Three upright slabs and a septal slab survive to the E of the intact chamber in a deep hollow which marks the extent of the chamber. Immediately to the N of the chamber lies a mound of recent origin, which may well be a spoil heap

from antiquarian excavations. No trace of the extent of the cairn can now be identified, however the statistical account reports that a huge cairn known as St Margerets Law was removed in 1772, exposing the chamber visible today. A reputed 15,000 cart-loads of rubble were removed from the cairn.

Archive: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) intended

Funder: Forestry Commission Scotland

Jamie Humble – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES, Volume 16)