Archaeology Notes

Event ID 648654

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/648654

NC24NW 1 2187 4676.

(NC 2187 4676) Burial Chamber (NR)

OS 6"map, (1963)

Badnabay: Round Cairn, Orkney-Cromarty with polygonal chamber.

The site, which consists of a group of fifteen upright stones of gneiss, is on low-lying uncultivated land under 50 ft O D. The cairn has been completely removed but its edge can be traced giving a diameter of 40 ft NW-SE by 37 ft transversely. The entrance has been from the SE. At the cairn edge on this side there remain a pair of low portal stones 2 ft apart barely projecting above the present ground surface. The passage has been about 7 ft long, for at this distance further W are another pair of low stones, evidently the portals between the passage and chamber. The outer compartment of the chamber has been rectangular, about 5 ft 10 ins wide and about 4 ft long, and has one side stone surviving. A pair of transverse stones 2 ft high and set 2 ft 7 ins apart from the entrance into the inner compartment. This main compartment is oval, 10 ft 4 ins by 8 ft 9 ins, and built of taller stones, the largest 3 ft 8 ins high.

A S Henshall 1963; RCAHMS 1911; A J Boyd 1954.

Correct as described and planned.

Revised at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (W D J) 13 July 1960 and (J M) 27 May 1980.