Archaeology Notes

Event ID 655103

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/655103

ND34SW 71 30507 42107.

An Orkney-Cromarty type round cairn with a Camster-type chamber. One of a group of five cairns known as Cairns of Warehouse, it was excavated by Rhind in 1853 and Anderson in 1865, prior to Rhind's excavation it had been used as an illicit still. It surmounts a conspicuous natural mound and is now completely ruined, but at the time of Anderson's excavation it was about 9ft high and 30 to 40ft in diameter. His plan shows part of an encircling wall face on either side of the entrance.

J Rhind 1854; J Anderson 1886; A S Henshall 1963.

This cairn is not chambered. Description of excavations given by Henshall in 1963 should have been applied to McCole's Castle (ND34SW 40).

J L Davidson and A S Henshall 1991.

Scheduled with ND34SW 41, ND34SW 69, ND34SW 70 as Cairns of Warehouse.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 9 November 2000.

This large cairn crowns the summit of a heather-clad knoll on the highest point of the watershed between the Burn of Warehouse to the SSW and Loch of Yarrows to the NNE. It comprises a mass of rubble measuring 21.7m from NE to SW by 17.4m transversely and up to 3m in height on the S. It has been extensively robbed and, in addition to the large, deep hollow at its centre, its surface is marked by several shallow depressions and small heaps of gathered stone. Two modern marker cairns have been erected on the cairn. That on the NW measures 1.3m in diameter and 1.35 in height, while that on the SE measures 1.7m in diameter and stands 2.8m in height.

(YARROWS04 418)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG) 28 July 2004