Measured Survey

Date 1994

Event ID 922803

Category Recording

Type Measured Survey

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/922803

NR 884 309 A survey was commissioned of GUARD to fully record and describe features within two caves to the S of the King's Cave, including a recently identified Norse carving. These features had yet to be formally recognised and are the subject of erosion by natural processes and active vandalism. The results complement work recently undertaken in the King's Cave by lan Fisher, RCAHMS. A co-ordinated ground plan of all three caves was produced, to a scale of 1:100, and plans of any archaeological features within the caves were produced at a scale of 1:50. The extent, condition, character and inferred date of any identified features was assessed during the survey, and a fully comprehensive photographic record was taken of the southern two caves and all relevant features within them.

Within the N cave a stone structure curves inwards from the entrance, constructed from large boulders with smaller infilling stones. In the southern cave a single curving row of boulders encloses a raised area. The function and date of the settings could not be determined from survey alone, although comparisons may be made with nearby Tormore and Kilpatrick, where small circular stone structures dating to the Bronze Age, had been discovered. Traditionally the caves were thought to have been used by early Christian hermits. Ogham inscriptions and a large cross carved into the King's Cave may attest to this. The Norse carving at the mouth of the southern cave comprises an interlace pattern typical of the period when Arran fell under the influence of the Norse Kingdom of the Isles.

Sponsors: Historic Scotland; Argyll and the Islands Enterprise.

R Harry 1994c.