Excavation

Date 2003 - 2006

Event ID 577451

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/577451

NH 9086 5220 Laikenbuie Ring Cairn was excavated between 2003 and 2006. It lies to the NE of Laikenbuie Cairn Field (DES 2007). During excavation samples were taken from the fill of a small hole near the centre of the ring cairn and from the early land surface under boulders forming the ring of the cairn. The samples were analysed by Reading University and radiocarbon dated by SUERC. The date from the hole was obtained from a mixture of quercus and corylus charcoal (SUERC-16910) and gave a date of 2465+35 BP. The date from the early land surface beneath the ring was obtained from corylus charcoal (SUERC-16909) and gave a date of

2440+35 BP. At a 68.2% probability the dates are 550–480 BC and 525–455 BC. The dates are Early Iron Age.

These dates correspond with the latest of four dates obtained from Balnuaran of Clava S ring cairn 2420+45 BP

(AA25259) (Bradley 2000) and with two dates obtained at the excavations of Kerb Cairn IIA Sands of Forvie 2565+140 BP (GU-1824) and 2510+125 BP (GU-1826) (Ralston 2000).

Laikenbuie Ring Cairn is in the Clava tradition of monuments. It is similar in form and size to Balnuaran of Clava S (DES 2007). It is interesting that both these monuments had been considered previously to be Iron Age hut circles. Richard Bradley’s investigation published in 2000 proved that Balnuaran of Clava S was not a hut circle but a ring cairn, a similar result to our excavation at Laikenbuie. Three of the dates obtained at Balnuaran of Clava S Ring Cairn indicate activity there in the Late Bronze Age, though these earlier dates may indicate residual material. The fourth, later, date corresponds with the Early Iron Age dates obtained at Laikenbuie Ring Cairn and may indicate that the two cairns are contemporary (R Bradley pers com). Bradley suggests that Balnuaran of Clava S was part of a secondary phase of monument building at Balnuaran of Clava more than a thousand years later than the earlier monuments (Bradley 2000).

At Laikenbuie Ring Cairn we felt that elements in its design suggested that reflections of the earlier Clava monuments were being incorporated into the design of the later monument. From its typology we had thought the cairn to be Late Bronze Age but it has turned out to be Early Iron Age. It is interesting to note that Kerb Cairn IIA at the sands of Forvie also seems to reflect the earlier tradition of Recumbent Stone Circles in the surrounding area. It has a large flat stone making up the major part of its southern kerb, as do the RCS’s. The

excavation raises the question of whether these earlier traditions were being incorporated by the later monument builders with similar ideologies, or whether the builders were copying the form of degraded earlier monuments, seen in the landscape, without an understanding of the concepts of the earlier builders.

Bradley, R 2000 The good stones. A new investigation of the Clava Cairns. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Ralston, I 2000 Excavations of second and first millennia BC Mains on the Sands of Forvie, Slains, Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen: O’Dell Memorial Monograph No 28.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended). Report: HRC SMR (intended)

Sponsor: Funded by Nairnshire Committee

Ronnie Scott and Annette Jack (NOSAS), 2008