Excavation

Date February 2014 - October 2015

Event ID 1026273

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1026273

NH 57857 52062 (Canmore ID: 12837. SMR ID: MHG9014) Three local community heritage groups collaborated with two members of Archaeology Scotland’s Adopt-a-Monument scheme to restore and prepare for public engagement a neglected Neolithic Orkney-Cromarty chambered cairn.

Carn Glas is one of six Neolithic cairns on the Mulbuie Ridge at the base of the Black Isle. It was excavated first by Lord Abercromby in 1906 and then by Anthony Woodham in two seasons, 1955-6. After 1956 the excavated cairn was left open, and not backfilled. In subsequent years the inner chambers had become severely vegetated and overgrown. Three individuals, representatives of three local heritage groups, in late 2014 took on the task of restoring the cairn to the condition in which it had been left by Dr Woodham. Clearing the vegetation on the cairn was undertaken by members of the three organisations in February 2014. Following permission from Historic Scotland, subsequent work with the Adopt-a-Monument team to clean and restore the interior of the chambers occurred during site visits on three separate occasions from November 2014 to September 2015. The newly restored cairn was officially ‘opened’ in a small ceremony on 12 October 2015, attended by over 60 members of the public, as well as Dr Alison Sheridan of National Museums of Scotland and Colin Woodham, son of the 1950s excavator.

Work inside the chambers included cleaning the upstanding stones, removing accreted debris from the chamber floors and restoring a significant side stone that had fallen into the ante-chamber. No new artefactual remains were identified. The chamber floors were then covered with chipped stones, and a new display board erected on the edge of the cairn.

Archive: Highland Council HER and National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) intended. Report: Archaeology Scotland

Funder: Archaeology Scotland

Roland Spencer-Jones, Graham Clarke, Alasdair Cameron, Phil Richardson and Fiona Watson – North of Scotland Archaeological Society, Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands, North Kessock and District Local History Society, and Archaeology Scotland

(Source: DES, Volume 16)