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Field Visit
Date 25 August 1914
Event ID 1103915
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1103915
Chambered Cairn, Barp, Glac Hukarvat.
On the brow of a sharp brae at the top of the short, broad glen, Glac Hukarvat, between Haarsal and Meall Hukarvat, rather more than ¾ mile east of Howmore school, at an elevation of 200 feet above sea-level, is a ruined chambered cairn. The view is restricted on all sides except down the glen towards the north-north-west, where a maze of lochs and the Atlantic beyond with intervening machairs are seen. The area occupied by the cairn has been levelled preparatory to its erection, the excavated hollow on the higher or southern side measuring some 30 feet in width. The cairn has been considerably despoiled of stones on the summit and towards the southern and eastern sides, laying bare the central chamber, which has also been badly handled.
The cairn seems to have been circular with a diameter of about 65 feet; it is reduced to a height of about 7 feet, measured from the west side, but one of the large upright slabs forming the chamber rises about 5 feet higher. Round the boundary of the cairn there has been a setting of upright stones, the general height of the survivors being about 2 feet 9 inches. Five remain in position on the west and one on the south-east; other five displaced slabs lying round the eastern arc are probably part of this setting.
The chamber in the cairn has been formed of upright slabs, and has probably been circular, but the stones have been displaced and the present diameter is about 13 feet. Amongst the debris which has fallen into it is an irregularly shaped slab 4 feet 8 inches long, 4 feet 5 inches broad, and 12 inches thick, and scattered over the present summit of the cairn outside the chamber are at least twenty-five large blocks and lintels, some of which attain a length of 6 feet. The entrance passage has been destroyed, but it seems to have been either in the south or east side of the cairn.
RCAHSM 1928, visited 25 August 1914.
OS map: South Uist l.
