Boreray, Cailleacha Dubha
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Boreray, Cailleacha Dubha
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Canmore ID 10394
Site Number NF88SE 2
NGR NF 8571 8160
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10394
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF88SE 2 8571 8160.
(NF 8571 8160) Cailleacha Dubha (NAT)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)
Cailleacha Dubha, a long cist or cairn (RCAHMS 1928).
Now no vestige of cairn material, but a row of three large upright stones is probably part of the N wall of either a passage or chamber of a chambered cairn, and 4ft to the S an almost parallel row of six prostrate stones may have formed the other wall of the structure. To the N a large slab (8 x 6 x 1ft) is probably a displaced capstone.
A S Henshall 1972; RCAHMS 1928.
This burial chamber is as described by Henshall.
Visited by OS (J T T) 31 June 1965.
Field Visit (11 August 1915)
Long Cist, Cailleacha Dubha, Boreray.
On the south-eastern slope of a hill some 200 yards north-east of the school in the island of Boreray, and about the same distance from the shore, at an elevation of about 50 feet above sea-level, are three large slabs, set on edge in a line running north-north-east and south-south west, known as Cailleacha Dubha ("the black women"), apparently the remains of the long burial chamber of a large cairn which has been stripped of its covering of stones. The largest stone stands at the southern end of the row, and measures 5 feet 9 inches in height and 8 feet in length; it slightly overlaps the central stone, which is 4 feet 4 inches in height and 5 feet 10 inches in length; the third stone, which stands 1 foot 5 inches from the last mentioned slab, is 5 feet 1 inch high and 5 feet 5 inches in length. Immediately to the north-west of the last two stones is a large prostrate slab, measuring some 8 feet 1 inch in length, 6 feet 3 inches in breadth and 1 foot 2 inches in thickness. On the opposite side of the line of erect slabs is a row of five smaller stones placed at a distance varying from 3 feet 5 inches at one end of the row to 5 feet at the other end. (Fig. 132.)
RCAHMS 1928, visited 11 August 1915.
OS map: North Uist xxvi.
