Field Visit
Date April 1984
Event ID 932029
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/932029
In 1928 four long cists were discovered in a gravel-pit about 500m SW of North Lodge, Poltalloch, in an area formerly known as Kill y Kiaran. Some 37m to the N was a low bank measuring about 0.15m in height and 7.3m in width, which was traced for a length of 64m. Gravel-digging has since removed all traces of the cists and the bank, which was interpreted as cutting off the promontory on which the cists, and a group of four short cists (NR89NW 36), were situated.
The first cist, aligned ESE and WSW [?], measured 1.68m in length, 0.48m at the E end, 0.46m at the shoulders and 0.31m at the W end; it was constructed of three slabs on each side, two end-slabs and three cover slabs and contained an extended inhumation with the head at the Et end. The second cist lay parallel to the first, and some 0.46m to the S; it had been damaged at the W end in the course of gravel-digging. Constructed with two slabs on the N side, one on the S, one at the E end and with two surviving cover-slabs, it measured 0.2m in width at the E end and 0.28m in the middle. The third cist lay close to the E end of the first and in alignment with it; it had been disturbed by the construction of a fourth, which was cut into its E end. The W end -slab, two slabs of each side, and one cover slab remained. Part of a skull was found at the W end. The fourth cist was aligned NE and SW; it was constructed with three slabs on each side, two end-slabs and three cover slabs, and measured 1.73m in length, 0.46m in width at the W end, 0.5m at the shoulders and 0.25m at the E end. It contained an extended inhumation with the head at the W end.
A stone with an ogam inscription was found near the site of the cists in 1931 and Craw suggested that 'there can be little doubt that it has been broken at some at some recent time from a slab of one of the graves' (Craw 1932). It measures 254mm in length by 82mm in breadth and 57mm in thickness. The scored letters use one edge of the stone as a base-line and in transliteration read CRON(A)N. The stone is now in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Queen Street, Edinburgh.
RCAHMS 1992, visited April 1984
