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Field Visit

Date May 1982

Event ID 1101623

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1101623

This cairn is situated 400m NNE of the chambered cairn (NR89NW 2) and 150m SSW of Nether Largie North Cairn (NR89NW 4), on a low terrace in the Kilmartin Valley. It was excavated in 1929, and the following description is largely based on the published account (Craw 1930, 127-30; Campbell and Sandeman 1964).

The cairn measures about 30m in diameter and was until the 1920s as much as 3m in height, but by the time it was excavated much of the cairn material had been removed 'not long before for repairing roads'. It is now an irregular platform of stones up to 1m high, in which several kerbstones can still be seen, particularly on the S arc. Excavation revealed two cists; the position of the more northerly, which was set in a pit beneath the cairn, is now indicated by low concrete posts, but the other is still visible near the S edge of the cairn. Aligned NE and SW, the N cist measured 1.2m by up to 0.7m and 0.6m in depth, and was paved with flat slabs. The massive lozenge-shaped capstone was 2.5m by 1.8m. The side-slabs had been carefully grooved in order to receive the end-slabs; on the inner face of the SE side-slab, outside the NE end-slab, there are two additional grooves, one of which had been pecked for a length of only 0.2m from the upper edge of the stone. The cist was empty. The S cist, which had been inserted into a pit dug into the natural gravel, is now displayed with the massive capstone supported above it, so that the interior may be viewed. The capstone is a large triangular slab measuring 1.9m by 1.9m and 0.28m in thickness, with the cist below aligned NW and SE and measuring about 1.4m by 0.6m and 0.55m in depth. The cist was found to be empty. On the inner surface of the NW end-slab there is at least one recognisable cupmark, which measures 50 mm in diameter and 10 mm in depth, and at the centre of the slab there is a pecked marking of a bronze axehead, which measures 150mm in length and 110mm in breadth at the blade and 70mm in breadth at the butt (Campbell and Sandeman 1964). Although both cists were devoid of burial remains and accompanying grave-goods, the excavator considered that they had not suffered earlier disturbance. About 9.5m NE of this cist, there is a slab measuring 0.95m by 0.63m and 0.21m in thickness, and bearing five cupmarks up to 50mm in diameter and 10mm in depth.

RCAHMS 1988, visited May 1982.

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