Database Update
Date 23 September 2010
Event ID 629736
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/629736
Situated on a terrace on the SW flank of Unival, this chambered cairn is largely as described and planned by Henshall. Though the cairn is said to be ‘almost square in plan’, it may be more D-shaped, with the façade on the ESE bowing outwards and the NNW and SSW sides narrowing slightly towards the rear, WNW, side. The cairn is grass grown with loose stones strewn across its interior and is defined by a peristalith of large slabs with little evidence of drystone masonry surviving between them. What may have been the stone forming the WSW corner lies flat, partly hidden in the heather. The entrance is more or less central to the façade with a short passage 1.4m long leading to an oval chamber; both the passage and chamber are set askew to the axis of the facade. Seven slabs make up the chamber, the tallest standing 2m high at the rear, W, end. The axis of the chamber extends through this slab and coincides not only with the tallest stone still standing on the WNW side of the peristalith, but also the largest stone on the façade. The remains of an Iron Age house (NF86NW 18) overlie the E of the cairn, while on the WSW, 7m beyond the peristalith, there is an impressive standing stone. This measures 1.45m in breadth by 0.15m in thickness and stands 2.6m in height in a water-filled peaty hollow with some chocking stones exposed around its base.
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG,SPH) 23 September 2010
