Archaeology Notes

Event ID 663380

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/663380

NH74SE 4 7568 4438.

(Centred NH 7571 4443) Stones Circles and Cairns (NR) (Urns containing calcined bones found)

OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906)

Clava passage-grave (Balnuaran of Clava, South-west) This cairn is one of the group of three at Balnuaran and lies only 80ft south west of the central cairn. It is very similar to the north-east cairn, but the circle of monoliths and platform round the cairn have been disturbed by making the road which skirts the south-east side of the monument though it does not interfere with the cairn itself.

The kerb of large boulders is almost complete and encloses a cairn 52 feet 6 inches in diameter, though a flattening of the kerb at the entrance reduces the diameter on the axis of the chamber ot about 50 feet. The kerbstones are largest by the entrance where they are 3 feet 6 inches high. The cairn of bare stones stands over 9 feet high. There is a very distinct platform of stony material stretching 12 feet to 13 feet 6 inches outside the kerb except where it has been partially destroyed on the SE side.

The entrance is from the south-west. The passage, 19 feet 9 inches long and 2 feet wide, is constructed of two rows of upright boulders with one or two courses of masonry above, giving a total height of up to 4 feet. The chamber is not exactly circular in plan, measuring 11 feet 6 inches by 13 feet in diameter. The walls stand to a total height of 6 feet 9 inches, with a maximum of six courses of flattish but irregular stones slightly oversailing, their outer ends projecting well back into the cairn.

The surrounding circle of standing stones now has ten monoliths remaining, all but four of which are known to have been reset. The three stones to the west of the entrance had fallen and were re-erected about 1876, the next stone is probably in position, the north west stone has been "restored". The second stone to the east of the entrance has been moved to be parallel with the road and the north-east stone has been turned to form the end of a wall. The circle seems to have been set 24 to 28 feet outside the kerb.

Cupmarks are said to occur on a number of stones. On the boulder forming part of the foundation of the chamber of the west of the entrance there are certainly twelve cupmarks. The surface of the sandstone slab on the corresponding position on the south side of the entrance has now flaked away so much that no cupmarks can be seen. On the third stone on the south side of the passage there are perhaps two or three cupmarks but the stone has a very irregular surface. The loose stone noted as having two cupmarks which formerly lay in the centre of the chamber is no longer to be seen, of the three monoliths reported as cupmarked those on the south and northwest are so weathered that no definite marks could be seen but the monolith now set upright on the west certainly bears three, if not more, on its inner surface.

In the chamber have been found parts of two pots, since lost, which were possibley secondary flat-rimmed ware. A quantity of calcined bones were found in and around the pot.

T D Lauder 1830; W Jolly 1882; J Fraser 1884; ISSFC 1885; S Piggott 1956; A S Henshall 1963, visited 15 April 1957.

NH 7568 4438. The remains of the cairn are as described above.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 25 April 1962.

Air photographs of the Balnuaran of Clava cairns, taken by Jill Harden in 1989, are in Inverness Museum (8901.21-22 and 8907.02 INVMG). Information from J Harden 1989.

NH 757 444. A broken fragment of sandstone, 19.5 x 10.1 x 7.2cm, was found near Clava Cairns. It has a series of incised grooves, in the form of 3 or 4 concentric arcs, 1 short arc and 2 or 3 parallel lines. The object was found in a collapsed part of a drystone wall to which it was obviously not related. The wall is on the SE side of the public road past the farm and the Clava Cairns. The find is temporarily held by the reporters.

M R and G R Curtis, 1996