Archaeology Notes

Event ID 653672

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/653672

ND16SE 1 1742 6260

(ND 1742 6260) Mound (NR)

OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

Shean, Stemster: This is the turf-covered and mutilated remains of a long cairn. The main axis is SSE-NNW, the former end rising into a circular mound with a height of about 8ft, but the rest of the cairn has been greatly disturbed and tails away to a height of only about 1ft.

The length is now 149ft, but the SSE end has been cut off square and somewhat curtailed by the construction of a large cistern immediately in front of it. The NNW end may also have been reduced by the track which passes behind the site. The width at the SSE end is 73ft, and at the NNW end, 33ft.

RCAHMS identified this site with that excavated by Tress Barry in 1904, although this is not certain. In the RCAHMS report of the excavation, mention is made of an inhumation in the chamber, and in the debris near the top of the cairn, another, apparently secondary unburnt interment, accompanied by pieces of an urn, now lost.

RCAHMS 1911; A S Henshall 1963.

A long cairn, as described by Henshall (1963). No trace of a chamber can now be seen. A stone projects through the turf at the SE end, and another larger stone lies at the NW side of the cairn.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (R D) 10 November 1965

(ND 1742 6260) Long Cairn (NR)

OS 6" map, (1970)

No change to the previous field report.

Visited by OS (J M) 28 October 1981

Long cairn, 'Sithean'. Length: 51m. Long mound whose SW wider end is formed by a circular mound 15m in diameter and 2m high containing two hollows. Many depressions exist at the narrower end. Orientation SW-NE.

R J Mercer, NMRS MS/828/19, 1995.

Scheduled as Stemster, long cairn, 790m NNW of Roadside.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 12 August 2005.