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Kilcoy South

Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)

Site Name Kilcoy South

Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)

Canmore ID 12834

Site Number NH55SE 3

NGR NH 57021 51605

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12834

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Killearnan
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Ross And Cromarty
  • Former County Ross And Cromarty

Archaeology Notes

NH55SE 3 5701 5160.

(NH 5701 5160) This is an Orkney-Cromarty type polygonal, short horned cairn about 50 ft. across by 60 ft. long. On the SE are traces of dry walling and large boulders on the tips of the horns, which partly define a forecourt. In the centre of this facade are two upright portal stones; from these runs the passage 4 ft. by 4 ft, each wall being of one upright stone with a sill between.

Next is the outer compartment, about 6 ft long, each wall of one upright stone and spaces filled with dry-walling. Next, two transverse slabs, supporting a lintel, form the entry to the main, polygonal compartment, about 10ft. by 9 ft., each wall of 2 slabs supplemented with dry walling. Finally, a passage of upright stones 3 1/2ft. by 2 1/2ft leads by a double-silled entrance to a circular cell 5 1/2 ft. across.Remains include various types of pottery sherds, a saddle quern, white quartz, and skeletal remains of burnt bones.

A A Woodham 1956; A A Woodham 1956; A S Henshall 1963.

This cairn, now much mutilated, is as described above, and the tripartite chamber is still intact.

Surveyed at 1/2500. Photo.

Visited by OS (N K B) 21 January 1965.

No change.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 3 March 1989.

NH 570 516 Partial re-excavation of Kilcoy South chambered cairn was undertaken in early August 1997. The excavation has shown that the cairn is likely to have been round with a flat facade rather than, as previously thought, a horned cairn.

A report will be lodged at the NMRS.

Sponsors: Ms A Henshall, Dr G Ritchie.

G MacGregor and H Loney 1997

Activities

Field Visit (June 1979)

Kilcoy South (ROS 24) NH 570 515 NH55SE 3

The mutilated remains of this Orkney-Cromarty cairn are situated about 700m NNW of Mains of Kilcoy farmhouse. On the SE there is a funnel-shaped forecourt where two portal stones mark the entrance to a passage and a three-compartment chamber. The cairn was excavated in 1956-8 when fragments of Beaker ware, a saddle quern, a flint flake, pieces of white quartz and five deposits of burnt bone and charcoal were discovered. The finds are now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland {NMAS EO 1046-52).

RCAHMS 1979, visited June 1979

Woodham 1956, 86; Henshall 1963-72, i, 348-9

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