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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 697308
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/697308
NR89NW 2 82860 97920.
(NR 8287 9794) Cairn (NR)
OS 6" map (1924)
The New Statistical Account (NSA) notes 'urns' found in cairns in the Kilmartin Valley.
NSA 1845.
This Clyde-type chambered round cairn is near the centre of, and the earliest monument in, a linear cemetery stretching almost 3 miles. It is stated (W Greenwell 1865) to have had a diameter 134', but the greater part of it had been removed by 1864. Today, most of the remaining cairn material is heaped around the chamber, reaching the level of the capstones. Around the S half of the site grass-covered cairn-stones spread well beyond this heap, and there is a fairly well-defined edge c. 52' from the chamber. This edge is less evident on the N, and on the W, all the outer cairn material has been removed. The present edge round the E side is probably roughly that of the ancient cairn, for it gives a diameter of 120' if the cairn is assumed to be round with the chamber set centrally, as the present appearance seems to indicate. On the S and E the area between the edge and the heaped cairn material is now mainly flat and suggests (J G Callander 1929) a platform on which the cairn, of smaller circumference, was built. This suggestion cannot be verified as the site has been so badly robbed and disturbed, though it seems more likely that the large circular 'platform' is the base of a robbed extension of the original cairn, made to take the secondary cist burials.
The chamber excavated by Greenwell in 1864, is entered at its NE end, between two tall portal stones. It is 20' long, by 6' wide at the N, and 3'7" wide at the S end, constructed of blocks of schist set on their ends or sides, supplemented by a considerable amount of dry walling.
Two short cists had been exposed in the cairn before the excavation. One is still visible towards the S side, c. 32' behind the chamber. It measures 3'8" x 2'8" x 3' deep, with a cover stone 7'6" x 3'6". This cist was empty. Another, smaller cist, 5'4" x 3'1" x 4' deep, was found towards the N side, 24' from the centre of the cairn.
The finds from the excavation, in the British Museum, include Neolithic bowl, beaker, food vessel and cinerary urn sherds, barbed and tanged arrowheads and flint flakes.
A S Henshall 1972, visited 1961; J H Craw 1930; J N G Ritchie 1973; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964
As described.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (AA) 25 April 1973
Nether Largie - South Cairn (DoE nameplate) measuring 31.0m N-S by 29.0m and 2.1m high is otherwise generally as described.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (TRG) 15 February 1977
