Archaeology Notes

Event ID 695070

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695070

NR58SW 1 5177 8246

Uamh Righ (name NR 5185 8744) was excavated in 1971 by Mercer. Known now as the "King's Cave" and alleged by some to be associated with Robert the Bruce, the name could well have meant "the Lord's Cave" in the early 17th century. Battered on to the walls are well over a hundred poorly-marked crosses,and the excavation revealed that the centre of the cave had been extensively levelled with flat slabs with, a little farther in, a small, separate patch of paving. Behind it, and below the most decorated wall, a broken bone pin, its head perhaps a stylised cross, was found. Catholic services are known to have been held by a Franciscan missionary in remote caves in these islands in 1629, during a period of persecution.

J Mercer 1974.

Uamh Righ, an occupied cave at NR 5177 8246, is as as described by Mercer.

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (N K B) 22 May 1978.