Skye, Liveras

Chambered Cairn, Liveras, Broadford.

This fine cairn, which was opened in 1832 and since then has been further disturbed, encroaches on the west side of the road about 500 yards south of the pier at Broadford, immediately to the north of the garden of the United Free Church manse. Standing 100 feet distant from and 20 feet above high-watermark, it is now oval in shape and measures 77 feet in length, 55 feet in breadth, and 13 feet in height at its highest point. It is reported that the chamber was about 6 feet in height, and that an urn and other relics, including a flint arrow-head and a stone bracer or wrist-guard, were found in it (1). The latter is preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities. The cover stone of the chamber, which had apart broken off when the cairn was excavated, lies on the north slope of the cairn; what remains is roughly triangular in shape and measures 8 feet in length, 5 feet in breadth across the widest end, and 1 foot in thickness. When the road to the new pier at Broadford was being made, at least one cist was discovered in removing a small part of the eastern edge of the cairn.

(1) Strath: In Isle of Skye, by Rev. D. Lamont, p. 160.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 9 May 1914.

OS map: Skye xl.

NG62SW 1 6416 2378

(NG 4616 2378) Cairn (NR)

OS 6"map, (1967)

A Hebridean type chambered cairn, probably originally round, but heavily robbed although it is still a large, steep-sided, grass-covered mound bearing trees. It measures about 77ft by 55ft by 13ft in height.

The chamber was discovered in 1832 when part of it collapsed, and a partial exploration produced, amoung other finds, a wrist-guard of fine grey-green stone. A similiar wrist-guard (NG62SW 7) was found on the beach, probably having been thrown out during the exploration. An urn with a secondary burial was also found.

At least one cist was discovered when a small part of the E side of the cairn was removed in making the road. This is probably the "stone coffin and an urn" which Lamont (1913) mentions as having been found subsequently to the discovery of the chamber.

The capstone of the chamber, said to have been broken in 1832, still leans against the base of the mound on the N side. It is 8ft long, 5ft in maximum width and 1ft thick. A small flat slab lies nearby.

The wrist-guard was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession no. AT 4).

(A S Henshall 1972; RCAHMS 1928; D Lamont 1913)