Field Visit
Date May 1981
Event ID 1101420
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1101420
On a level terrace overlooking the Holy Loch about 150m E of Ardnadam there are the remains of a single-compartment burial-chamber situated within a cairn measuring about 11m by 8m and 1m in height; it has, however, been so severely robbed that the present spread of stones probably does not reflect the original height or outline (Henshall 1972, 331)*.
The chamber, which measures about 3.25m by 0.8m and 1m in height above the present floor level, is aligned NE-SW with the entrance at the NE end. The portal stones stand to heights of 1.6m and 1.75m above ground level on the NW and SE respectively; in the course of his excavation in 1904, Bryce discovered that they were set in socket-holes (Bryce 1909, 363-6). The massive NW side-slab of the chamber is 2.8m long and 0.5m in greatest thickness, but the stones forming the SE side are now partly dislodged. The capstone (2.3m by 2m and 0.25m thick), which still covers a large part of the chamber, rests on cairn material along its SE edge and not directly on the side-slabs. The chamber had already been cleared out before Bryce's examination, and 'even by careful riddling' of the floor-deposits nothing was found (Bryce 1909, 366).
Visited May 1981
RCAHMS 1988
*The cairn is known locally as 'Adam's Grave' or 'Adam's Cave'; for early descriptions of the site and accounts of the folklore connected with it see Bennett, J M, Notes on Neolithic Chambered Tomb at Ardnadam, Argyll (no date).
