Archaeology Notes

Event ID 696456

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/696456

NR65SE 13 6539 5161

(NR 6539 5159) Burial Ground (NR)

(Ridh' a' Chaibeil) (NAT)

Cross (NR)

OS 6" map, (1924)

An old burying-place where there is a cross, with one of the arms and part of the top broken. The place is called 'Righ Chaibeal', ie the King's Chapel or Tomb.

Statistical Account (OSA) 1793.

'A well-known burying-ground, but not used for a considerable time; while the former tenant of Tarbert was ploughing about the edge of the above ground the plough turned open a small wooden coffin. No trace of any gravestone can be seen as the place is filled up with stones and rubbish. Near the centre of the burying ground stands an old stone cross, the arms destroyed a few years back by battle who knocked it down several times, but erected again by the inhabitants in the most suitable place'.

The name 'Righ Chaibeal' could not be confirmed, all the local authorities being of the opinion that 'Field of the Burying Ground' - Ridh' a' Chaibeil - should be adopted.

Name Book 1869.

A Neolithic or Bronze Age cairn (information from notes and illusts by R E MacCallum to OS, 1962) A small excavation at the SW edge in April 1961 showed the cairn material to be at least 3ft thick, all but 6ins being below ground. The cross, Keills-type and possible 10th century is inserted to a depth of 18ins.

D M Wilson and D G Hurst 1964.

This burial-ground is said to have been used until a fairly recent period (Anderson 1939). At the present time, however, the graveyard is marked simply by an uncultivated patch of ground, measuring about 25m by 20m, which has been artificially raised by stones dumped from the surrounding arable field; its original shape is uncertain, and although it is possible that a chapel formerly existed here, no trace of any building is now visible (cf also NR65SE 12).

Within the burial-ground there stands a mutilated and weathered cross,made of local micaceous schist. The cross is probably not precisely in its original position since it faces NE and SW and is only loosely supported at the base by boulders. Both the arms had been broken off before 1875, when White (1875) published a sketch of the monument, but one of the arms was discovered shortly before the Commission's visit so that the outline of the cross can now be reconstructed. A monolith, it originally stood only a few centimetres higher than its present height of 1.83m and measured 0.66m across the arms.

T P White 1875; R S G Anderson 1939; RCAHMS 1971, visited 1966.