Archaeology Notes
Date - 1977
Event ID 696539
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/696539
NR89NW 15 8330 9680.
(NR 8331 9681) Cairn (NR)
OS 6" map (1924)
This cairn was excavated by Mapleton and Greenwell in 1864. It measures 100' in diameter and at S a slab 14' x 8'4" x 1'3" resting on boulder walls to form a cist, 7'6" x 3'2" x 3'6", which contained several deposits of burnt bones, separated from each other by small rough fragments of stone - the deposits of perhaps 8 or 10 bodies. As this cist is so similar to that in the Glebe cairn (NR89NW 5) it must be supposed that at first it was constructed for an inhumation. Though now on the S side of the cairn, a great deal of the cairn on that side has been removed, so very probably this cist which cannot satisfactorily be classified as a chamber (A S Henshall 1972) was the primary burial.
A second cist, in the present centre of the cairn, stood a few feet from the ground. It measured 4'6" x 2'6" x 2'6", and contained a bowl food vessel, now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS - Accession no: HPO 12), burnt bone, charcoal and flint chips. A rough pavement seemed to form the bottom of the cist, but on removing it, the remains of an inhumation, buried in clay, were found. (The account of finding a body on the cover stone of this cist would appear erroneous.)
A third cist was found near the outside of the cairn 22' E of the boulder cist. It measured 1'6" x 1'3" x 1'3", and contained a bowl food vessel (also in the NMAS - HPO 11) burnt bones and flint chips. This cist is now hidden.
Among the stones of the cairn, a whetstone, flint knife, pottery fragments, and a greenstone axe 6" x 3", were found. These are now lost. R J Mapleton 1870; W Greenwell 1868; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964
A round cairn generally as described.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (IA) 3 April 1973
Dunchraigaig Cairn (DoE nameplate) is 30.0m in diameter and 2.5m high at the centre, and heavily rubbed in the S and E. The two cists are as described in the previous information. The third cist - found near the outside of the cairn on the east - was not evident. On the north extremity of the cairn, several earthfast boulders protruding through the turf may be the remains of a kerb.
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (TRG) 1 April 1977
