Field Visit
Date May 1985
Event ID 1101450
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1101450
Access to this cairn (Henshall 1972, 330-1) which is situated on a NNE-SSW ridge 200 m E of Ardmarnock farm and 150 m S of Ardmarnock House, is provided by a path cleared through an otherwise almost impenetrable rhododendron shrubbery. At the date of visit, it was not possible, because of the undergrowth, to measure the full extent of the cairn but, as seen in 1942, the cairn material was traced for 'at least 70 feet' (21 m) along the axis of the ridge (Childe and Graham 1943, 32-3); this confirms the earlier account that the cairn was 20 yards long (18 m) (Stat. Acct. 14, 250-9). A spread of stones measuring at least 9 m in diameter and 1.2 m in height at present surrounds the chamber, which is aligned NNE and ssw and is composed of two compartments, of which the outer has two large side-slabs, that on the w leaning slightly to the w, and that on the E leaning considerably to the E, and each of them about 2 m high. The outer end of this compartment is obscured by a tree, but it is about 0.7 m wide. The inner compartment measures 1.45 m by 0.9 m and about 1.4 m in depth; the septal slab separating the two compartments is about 0.35 m lower than the side-slabs an dthe end-slab, which is pointed at the SE corner and at least1·5 m high. The upper edge of the septal slab is slightly hollowed, but it is not possible to be sure whether this was deliberately shaped, as suggested by Childe, or is, perhaps, more probably the result of weathering. The septal slab is, however, decorated with two opposing cup-markings (Morris 1977, 50): a cup and-ring marking on the outside (0.43 m from the w side and 0·3 m from the top) measures some 85 mm in diameter overall with the central cup 45 mm in diameter and 10 mm deep; the plain cup on the inner face (0.43 m from the w side and 0.32 m from the top) is 40 mm in diameter and 10 mm deep. Several displaced slabs lie round the chamber, including the cover slab of the inner compartment (1.65 m by 1.4 m and up to 0.15 m thick), and the massive slab that covered the outer compartment (2.2 m by 1.9 m and up to 0.25 m thick).
RCAHMS 1988, visited May 1985
