Field Visit

Date 20 October 1988

Event ID 607243

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/607243

In September 1967, Mr R S Murray wrote to T C Lethbridge at University Museum, Cambridge, relating that he had dug into an unexamined cairn in Caithness to a depth of 3ft. At this depth he came across two 'shelves' and digging deeper, he encountered a cavity in which were bones, shells, and some pieces of metal, all of which he sent to Cambridge. The matter was referred to R B K Stevenson at the NMAS, Edinburgh, who asked Murray for the identification of the cairn. This transpired to be at Rattar, and was taken to be the chambered cairn there (ND27SW 3, CAT 45), and the bones were said to be those of a dog.

It appears that Murray must have dug at the cairn again in 1968, as the next correspondence in April 1969 states that Dr Lunt had examined the skulls from Rattar implying a neolithic date, as it was still presumed that they were from the chambered cairn. A Fenton, from the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), visited and photographed the mound in October 1969. In October 1988, while investigating the chambered cairn ND27SW 3, J L Davidson and A S Henshall had it confirmed by the farmer at Rattar that the mound Murray had dug into was that opened by John Nicolson in 1907, and this was confirmed by the photographs taken by Dr Fenton and Murray himself (NMRS:CA/519-23). In one of these photographs can be seen two spaced upright slabs indicative of an O-C chamber. The mound itself is oblong on plan measuring about 15m NE-SW by 11m, and is 1.6m high. Murray's excavation has been filled in, but thrown-out slabs lie adjacent to it. There are no identifications of Nicolson's excavation other than the three slabs set some 4m to the SW of the mound.

Visited by RCAHMS (J L D) 20 October 1988; Information contained in letter from R S Murray, 34 Beechwood Road, Blackburn, W Lothian, to T C Lethbridge, Cambridge University, 7 September 1967; from R B K Stevenson, National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, to R S Murray, 25 September 1967 and 29 November 1967; from A S Henshall, NMAS, to R S Murray, 21 April 1969 and 20 October 1969.