Swordale Wood
Clearance Cairn (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Swordale Wood
Classification Clearance Cairn (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 14030
Site Number NH69SW 40
NGR NH 6271 9014
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/14030
- Council Highland
- Parish Creich (Sutherland)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NH69SW 40 6271 9014.
NH 6271 9014. A great triangular mass of medium-sized stones lies within Swordale Wood, at the edge of what was cultivated land in 1909, when the RCAHMS described it as being 46ft across its concave NE face, 50ft in length, flat on top and about 4ft high. In front of it were irregular and indefinite foundations of walls. They thought it was too large to be a field clearance heap, although they admitted that it did not resemble any known construction.
The field investigators in 1963 and 1969 concluded that it was indeed a modern clearance heap, and noted many similar, though smaller, mounds in the wood to the W, lying just S of arable fields.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; Visited by OS ((W D J) 27 May 1963 and (N K B) 20 October 1969.
No change to the previous field reports.
Visited by OS (J B), 9 September 1980.
Field Visit (27 July 1909)
98. Construction (remains of), Swordale, Bonarbridge.
Within Swordale Wood, at the edge of the cultivated land and on the E. of the tongue that projects towards the SSW., about 270 yards W. of Little Swordale, is a great triangular mass of stones, with a slight concave outline to the NE. It is 50' in length and 46' across the front facing NE. It is flat on the top, and about 4' high. In front of it are irregular indefinite foundations of walls. This mass of boulders seems too huge to have been formed of stones merely gathered from the adjacent fields, unless these were thickly strewn with cairns, and it does not resemble any known construction.
OS 6-inch map, Sutherland, Sheet cxi. (unnoted).
RCAHMS 1911, visited (AOC) 27th July 1909.
