Preas Mairi, Contin

This site was recorded as part of the RCAHMS Emergency Survey, undertaken by Angus Graham and Vere Gordon Childe during World War 2. The project archive has been catalogued during 2013-2014 and the material, which includes notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, plans and photographs, is now available online.

Information from RCAHMS (GF Geddes) 4 December 2014.

Date Fieldwork Started: 11/11/2019

Compiled by: NOSAS

Location Notes: The panel is situated within the small family burial ground of the Mackenzies of Coul. The burial ground is enclosed by a stone wall and is accessed by gates on the W side. The burial ground also contains the remains of a chambered cairn (SM 2397) in the SE part of the enclosed area. The panel is one of the seven remaining stone slabs of the cairn chamber. It is part of the bipartite chamber, located is on the NE side slab of the cairn, just to the W of the 2 portal stones and to the E of the inner portal stones. The vegetation in the burial ground is not being controlled in any way and ivy covers the ground and many of the memorials and the cairn stones. There are some very large trees and ornamental shrubs which make access limited. Prior to the building of the wall around the burial ground there would have been views over the confluence of the Black Water and the River Conon to the S. There is at least one other cup marked stone in the nearby area, Coul Woods. There are other chambered cairns in the area and a henge and crannog.

Panel Notes: This is a large schist slab measuring 1.8 x 0.4m wide and 0.8m high on the S side and 0.6m on the N side. The 3 large cups are on the top of the slab, they are all about 25cm across. The western-most cup is about 15cm deep, the central cup is 11cms deep and the E cup is very shallow in comparison only 5cm deep with no clear edge. The central cup has an upper overflowing lip on the N side. On the day of the visit the two deep cups were full of water and locally the water from the cups is still thought to be able to cure warts. Whether this belief, which may have considerable antiquity, has encouraged the deepening of the original cups is not clear, but there is no suggestion that there have been any modern changes in the shape of the cups.

Additional Description: Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of) Stone Cist (NR)

OS 6"map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1907)

Contin Mains (Pris Maree): This Orkney-Cromarty, rectangular, chambered cairn has been almost entirely removed, only some stones of chamber remaining. The entrance has been from E and two portal stones survive, 3' and 3.5' high and 2' 4" apart, with a low sill between them. Only N slab of the outer compartment remains; on its upper edge are three cup marks from 9" - 10" in diameter and 1.5" - 5" deep. Two transverse slabs sub divide chamber whose inner compartment is formed of two slabs; the northern is 2'3" high and southern 3'4". N of entrance is a prostrate slab over 7' long; 30' W of chamber two small parallel slabs 1' apart are exposed - possibly these are slightly displaced and belong to a cist. A S Henshall 1963

The remains of this chambered cairn are as described above.

Resurveyed at 1/2500. Visited by OS (R D) 20 January 1965

There is no trace of the alleged cist. Otherwise as described.

Visited by OS (A A) 23 April 1975

No change. Visited by RCAMS (JRS) March 1989.

Henshall, A S, 1963, The chambered tombs of Scotland, Volume 1, Vol. 1, 346, (ROS 19); plan 347 (Text/Publication/Monograph). SHG357.