Archaeology Notes

Event ID 655901

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/655901

ND34SW 4 31327 41124.

(ND 3133 4112) Cairn of Get (NAT)

Chambered Cairn (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

'Cairn of Get': A short horned cairn of Orkney-Cromarty type. Though much dilapidated, this cairn, excavated by Anderson in 1866 (Anderson 1869), is still 8 ft high and is covered with turf and heather. Much of the chamber is visible, the E wall of the inner chamber standing some 5 ft above the debris. The finds, now lost, included ashes, bones (both burnt and unburnt), flint (including leaf-shaped arrowheads) and Western Neolithic pottery.

J Anderson 1869; A S Henshall 1963; R W Feachem 1963.

Cairn of Get, as described and planned above.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (N K B) 21 April 1967.

This short horned cairn appears to have originated as a round chambered cairn about 25 ft in diameter.

A S Henshall 1972.

This chambered cairn lies towards the N end of an undulating terrace in heather moorland; it commands extensive views to the N and E, while to the S and W it is overlooked by higher ground. The cairn measures 18m in diameter and 2.25m in height and has pairs of horns projecting on the N and S respectively to form two forecourts. The entrance passage into the chamber, which is 0.5m broad and opens from the S forecourt, is flanked by two portal stones, the tallest on the W standing 0.6m high. The passage is 3.3m long and lined with rubble walls standing up to 0.9m in height in five courses. It appears to be slightly bowed, with both sides curving in to meet the portal stones of the ante-chamber. These stones are much taller that those at the entrance, that on the E being claw-shaped and standing 1.3m high, and that on the W 1m high. The ante-chamber is square on plan, measuring 1.7m from N to S by 1.7m transversely, and is defined by rubble walls up to 1.1m in height in seven courses. On its N side, two large portal stones frame the entrance into the main beehive-shaped burial-chamber, and these stones are taller still; that on the E stands 1.75m high, that on the W 1.5m high. Inside the chamber, the coursed rubble walls incorporate three large slabs on the N, E and W. The chamber measures 3.3m from E to W by 2.8m transversely and its walls still stand up to seventeen courses high. The corbelling for the roof begins to oversail about nine courses above the floor, or a height of 1m.

(YARROWS04 60)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, ATW) 16 June 2004