Field Visit
Date June 1981
Event ID 1101562
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1101562
This cairn, situated on the S bank of the Crinan Canal at a point 120m SE of the Cairnbaan Inn, occupies the summit of a rocky outcrop (Campbell and Sandeman 1964, no. 69); it is probably about 8 m in diameter and 2m high, but its edges merge with the sides of the knoll. The central cist, built on the surface of the rock (Craw 1930, 138), is aligned E and W and measures 1.07m by 0.4m and 0.4m in depth internally. The capstone is 1.7m long, 0.8m broad and 0.12m thick; at its W end, an incised linear design makes use of a natural crack, and there is a cupmark (28 mm in diameter and 7mm in depth) near the centre of the slab. When it was originally excavated, 'some years' before 1867, a schist slab was discovered 'slid in as an upright loose panel . . . resting against the stone forming the western end of the grave' (Simpson 1868, 29-30). The slab, of Craignish phyllite, measures 0.62m by 0.45m and 0.07m in thickness and is decorated with pecked multiple lozenge motifs on the front and with a recent chiselled scroll design on the back (PSAS 1862, 488; Morris 1977, 66-7); it is preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
RCAHMS 1988, visited June 1981.
