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Kinchyle Of Dores

Chambered Cairn (Neolithic), Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Site Name Kinchyle Of Dores

Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic), Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)

Alternative Name(s) Crow Wood Cottage, Ballindarroch

Canmore ID 13184

Site Number NH63NW 5

NGR NH 6215 3896

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/13184

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

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Dores
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Inverness
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

NH63NW 5 6215 3896.

(NH 6215 3896) Stone Circle (OE) (Remains of)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1905)

The site of this Clava passage-grave - Kinchyle of Dores - lies on a small hill-crest. The cairn material has been totally removed, but most of the kerb which has a diameter of 30 feet remains, now consisting of nineteen upright and fallen stones, placed with their flattest faces outwards. The stones nearest the entrance are 3 feet and 3 feet 6 inches high, the smallest stones occuring on the east side where they are 1 foot 6 inches or 1 foot 9 inches high. The entrance is just to the west of south. Three stones of the west side of the passage and two of the east side remain, theinner stones 2 feet and 1 foot 3 inches high being slightly taller than the others. Two stones of the chamber remain in situ on the north-west side and between them and the entrance is another which has fallen outwards.

The outer circle of monoliths, with a diameter of 66 feet is placed 16 to 18 feet outside the kerb. It retains five of its stones upright and three more have fallen over their former positions. The highest stone, 5 feet 9 inches tall, is to the south-west of the entrance, the others (clockwise) being 4 feet 6 inches, 4 feet 3 inches 3 feet 9 inches and 4 feet 3 inches high. All the stones used in the construction are irregular rounded boulders. When seen in about 1824 there were nine stones in the outer circle, but otherwise the site seems to have been in the same condition as at present (J Anderson 1831) It was visited by Johnson and Boswell during their Highland Tour (August 30th 1773) and was even then described as a double circle, one of very big, the other of smaller stones.

When the area of the original chamber was examined the old surface was only 1 foot below the present turf. "A small bowl-shaped pit was found cut into the boulder clay, 18 inches in diameter and 10 inches deep, filled with dark soil, and near this to the south-west was a scatter of cremated bones with dark earth on the old surface and under a few flattish stones. No other finds were made" (S Piggott 1956).

The cremated remains were of a single individual (F P Lisowski 1958).

J Anderson 1831; A J Beaton 1882; J Fraser 1884; S Piggott 1956; F P Lisowski 1958; A S Henshall 1963.

The remains of the chambered cairn are as described above.

Visible on GP air photograph AO/62/114/3. Photo.

Visited by OS (E G C) 20 March 1962.

Scheduled as 'Crow Wood Cottage, chambered cairn and standing stones 265m W of...'

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 21 February 2008.

Activities

Field Visit (19 August 1943)

Chambered Cairn, Ballindarroch, stands immediately to the east of General Wade’s Road from Inverness to Dores, between the farms of Ballindarroch and Balnafroig and near the NE end of the broad ridge defined by the 200’ contour but slightly east of its crest. The remains consist of a free-standing circle of 8 stones (the tallest on the SSW measuring 5’8” high x 5’3” x 2’6” and its neighbour on SSE 4’4” x 5’6” x 2’7”) with diameters of 63’ north and south x 61’ east and west; a peristalith of close-set slabs on edge 3’ to 2’6” high with diameters of 30’ and 29’; and four stones that probably constituted the basal course of a chamber 11’ in diameter. Entrance to the chamber was obtained through a gap in the peristalith a few degress west of south, and a passage about 10’6” long of which 4 orthostats survive on each side. The portal stone in the peristalith stands 3’4” x 2’9” x 1’6”.

The site has been planted though it is now clear of trees. 5 or 6 stones have been removed from the peristalith on the NE and replaced outside it further west. Practically nothing of the cairn itself survives.

Visited by RCAHMS (VG Childe, A Graham) 19 August 1943.

OS ref: xix (‘Stone Circle’)

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