Carn Mor
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Cairn (Prehistoric)(Possible)
Site Name Carn Mor
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Cairn (Prehistoric)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Swordale
Canmore ID 13998
Site Number NH69SW 11
NGR NH 6156 9141
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/13998
- Council Highland
- Parish Creich (Sutherland)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NH69SW 11 6156 9141.
(NH 6156 9141) Carn Mor (NR)
OS 6"map, Sutherland, 2nd ed., (1907)
The Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB, 1873) calls Carn Mor an immense cairn, partly hollowed out in the centre.
Name Book 1873.
The RCAHMS (1911) describe it as the site of a broch of which only a low mound of small stones remains.
RCAHMS 1911.
Revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R L) 16 October 1969.
Carn Mor (name still known locally) is situated on a false crest in an area of good agricultural land. It consists of a mound of small stones which appears to have measured originally some 19.0m in diameter, but it is now much spread and robbed. No wall-faces or worked stones are evident, and the mound is not 'broch-like' in appearance. The balance of evidence suggests that this is a cairn.
Visited by OS (R L) 16 October 1969.
(NH 6156 9141) Carn Mor (NAT) Broch (NR) (remains of)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1970)
Carn Mor, generally as described above, is so mutilated and overgrown by scrub and grass that its classification must remain uncertain.
Visited by OS (J B) 12 September 1980.
This site was visited during archaeological fieldwork and a desktop survey ahead of a proposed water mains renewal programme in the area. It is still as described above.
S Farrell 2004
Field Visit (2 October 1909)
53. Broch, ‘Carn Mor’, Swordale. In a field at Swordale, to the
S. of the Combination Poorhouse, is the site of a broch known as ‘Carn Mor’. Only a low mound of small stones remains.
OS 6-inch map: Sutherland Sheet cxi.
RCAHMS 1911, visited (AOC) 2nd October 1909.
Publication Account (2007)
NC69 1 CARN MOR 1
NC/60 90 (approx.)
Site of a possible broch near Swordale in Creich, Sutherland; only a low mound of stone now remains although the ruin still measured 32.3m (106ft) across in 1909 [2]. This site has not been found on the “Canmore” web site.
Sources: 1. RCAHMS 1911a, 20, no. 53: 2. Pococke 1760, 115.
E W MacKie 2007
