Sittenham

NH67SW 1 6491 7430.

NH 649 743. There is an Orkney-Cromarty type chambered cairn, first noted by Maclean as a stone circle, in a pine wood on the hilside near Stittenham House. The cairn material has been largely removed and the site is covered with pine needles, grass and moss. The vague edge of a round cairn can be traced on the W side, suggesting an original diameter of about 40'.

The main orthostats of the polygonal chamber and passage remain, all split slabs. At the SE side a pair of low stones set 2'9" apart form the portal at the entrance to the passage. They stand 1'3" high. The passage walls are not visible, but a pair of stones set askew to the axis of the passage, their tops level with the cairn, suggest that there was a small ante-chamber and that the passage was only 5' long.

The chamber was entered between two transversely set stones. That on the SW side remains, a somewhat higher stone than those described, projecting 1'9". The top of a displaced slab sloping into the chamber may be part of the NE transverse slab. Five more orthostats define a roughly circular chamber 8' in diameter. They stand about 2'6" high, taller than the stones of the passage and ante-chamber. The interior of the chamber is hollow as if it had been dug out at some time.

R Maclean 1886; A S Henshall 1972.

NH 6491 7430. A mutilated Orkney/Cromarty chambered cairn, as described and planned by Miss Henshall.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 9 May 1963 and (A A) 12 May 1975.