Field Visit

Date 17 March 1967

Event ID 1169864

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1169864

The site is at 450 ft, on the hillside overlooking the send of Loch Lomond. The remains of the cairn are in a strip of woodland which divides the higher fields of poor grazing from the more fertile lower fields. The position of the cairn is flat, on a ridge, but the ground drops steeply into a gully along its N side. The cairn is difficult to examine, for it bears thick bracken, dead trees lie on and around the site, and it has recently been planted with larches.

The cairn has been considerably robbed and several deep holes have been dug into it. Some of this disturbance happened about 1800 (en.1). The long axis lies ESE-WNW, and the maximum width at the ESE end seems to be about 42 ft. The edge is difficult to define except for about go ft at the E end of the s side where it is reasonably clear, and a kerb stone projects to in. high. The cairn material seems to die away between 70 and 80 ft behind the facade, but it extends about 20 ft in front of the facade. The cairn was formerly recorded as about 200 ft long. At its maximum, around the facade and the chamber, it is 3 or 4 ft high.

Four facade stones can be seen, forming a slightly concave line. At the s corner is a square-section flat-topped stone, which, in a hole dug on its W side, is exposed for a height of 2 ft 4 in. To the n the pointed tops of two stones are just visible. The northernmost stone is a large slab, 3 ft 3 in. long and exposed for a height of 2 ft 2 in. in a hole dug against its E face.

Behind the facade the remains of an axial chamber are exposed in the SW side of a roughly rectangular pit. The side slab is 6 ft 7 in. long, but its NW end is not exposed. On the SW side of its SE end there is an upright stone, projecting a few inches above the narrow level upper edge of the side slab. The side slab is exposed to a height of 1 ft 2 in., but loose stones fill the bottom of the pit. These two stones presumably represent the SW side of the chamber.

Twenty-five feet NW of this chamber is a small square chamber, the interior of which has been dug out. Its axis lies askew to that of the cairn. Internally it measures 4 ft to in. by 3 ft g in. The slab on the NE side is the largest, and is exposed to its full height of 3 ft 3 in. The NW and SE stones are a few inches lower and are thinner. The SW stone is much lower, but was probably taller originally as it is laminating. Its presumed junction with the SE stone is obscured at present. Otherwise the stones fit together neatly, with the NW end of the NE stone projecting for an unknown distance beyond the NW stone. The upper edges of the stones are level. Outside the chamber, set at an angle to its SE side, is another upright stone. It appears to be part of the structure, for its vertical w face can be seen to descend for a 1 ft 10 in. through the cairn material.

Some thirty feet beyond the traceable end of the cairn there are two small contiguous stones. The NW stone, 1 ft high and g in. thick, is aligned on the centre line of the cairn. The other stone, set transversely to its SE end, is 1 ft to in. high.

The old account of the cairn mentions ‘the graves, of which there may be from twenty to twenty-five’.

Finds. Bones and stone arrowheads were said to have been discovered in the graves during investigation about 1800.

Henshall 1972, visited 17 March 1967

(NSA, viii(1845), 222-3; Meg. Eng. (1969) 322)