Carn Na Feinne

NH67SW 6 6155 7479.

(NH 6155 7479) Carn na Feinne (NR)

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

All that remains of this Orkney-Cromarty type chambered cairn is a group of orthostats representing a rectangular chamber aligned across the gentle slope of the field in which it stands, with the entrance downhill to the ENE. The orthostats are large flat slabs of sandstone except one of schist. The S wall of the chamber consists of two slabs still in position, the E slab 2'10" high and 1'5" thick at the maximum, the W slab 3'6" high and 1' thick. The N wall consists of two more slabs, the eastern leaning acutely outwards and the western leaning inwards. If upright the E slab would be 3'6" high, and the W slab would be 4' high. These stones are 6" and 9" thick. At the W end of the chamber there lies a large prone slab which is likely to be the back-slab fallen outwards. Across the E end of the chamber lies a smaller slab, perhaps a displaced lintel. The chamber appears to have been 19' long and about 5' wide. Field stones have been gathered immediately around the chamber, and there are also some flat slabs perhaps displaced from the structure.

The chamber was in the same condition when recorded in 1886 (Maclean 1886) except that the end-stone then seems to have been upright. The chamber was opened in 1876, when remains thought to be of two bodies were found about 2' below the surface. The bodies were said to be in graves 7' long by 2' wide, "the one at the foot of the other": possibly the excavator found a low transverse stone which had divided the chamber into two compartments.

R Maclean 1886; A S Henshall 1972.

The remains of a chambered cairn, as described by Miss Henshall.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 1 May 1963 and (A A) 12 May 1975.