Field Visit
Date 20 June 1921
Event ID 1102662
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1102662
Circle and Denuded Cairn, Steinacleit, Shader.
Overlooking Loch an Duin, ½ a mile south-south-east of Lower Shader Schoolhouse and at an elevation of 150 feet above sea-level, are the remnants of a chambered cairn with stone circle kerb marked Steinacleit on O.S. map. (Figs. 49, 50).
Amid the loose stones of the cairn to the south of the interior are three upright stones, probably of the chamber, and the circle kerb, which is about 50 feet in diameter, consists of ten uprights, mostly broad on face and thin on edge; there are indications of four others beneath the surface of the ground, while there are six prostrate stones, one of which on the south markedly resembles the shape of an axe. It is 5 feet long, 2 feet 2 inches broad at base, diminishing by a concave side to 1 foot 8 inches about the middle, where it projects 1 foot 4 ½ inches on the other side to a narrowing edge and finishes 2 feet 8 inches along the top. The greatest thickness of base is 1 foot 1 inch, reduced to an arris on one side by 7-inch and 9-inch splays, and to 7 inches at the other by more gradual splays. These splays run the whole length of the stone and reduce the thickness to 2 inches at what would be termed the cutting edge of the axe. The character of the stone may be quite fortuitous.
The majority of the cairn stones are set in the south-east, where the ring seems to overlap and where one stone is at right angles to the others, which may indicate an entrance.
Nearly south-east, and 145 feet distant (cf. plan, Fig. 29), is a standing stone 5 ½ feet high, pentagonal on plan, with sides averaging about 1 foot; and 540 yards away, in a direction 4 degrees east of true north, is Clach Stei Lin or Clachan Mora Steinacleit, described in Article No. 18.
The site is surrounded by the usual peat bog, and recent digging for turf has revealed an exceptional feature, at a depth of 3 to 4 feet beneath the surface, in a ring of stones forming an oval enclosure, in the south-west of which the cairn is situated. The enclosure lies east and west and measures 270 and 183 feet respectively in greatest length and breadth. No attempt seems to have been made to form a wall of the ring, which is composed of fairly close-set stones single in height, and which varies from 5 or 6 feet broad in parts to a single stone at others. The turf is not wholly removed, but the stones are sufficiently exposed to assume a continuity of ring, which at most is 192 feet and at least 50 feet distant from the centre of the cairn.
Lewis v.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 20 June 1921
