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Little Urchany
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic), Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Little Urchany
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic), Stone Circle (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 14996
Site Number NH84NE 1
NGR NH 86656 48563
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/14996
- Council Highland
- Parish Cawdor
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Nairn
- Former County Nairn
NH84NE 1 8665 4857.
(NH 8665 4857) Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6"map, Nairnshire, 2nd ed., (1906)
This is a ruinous Clava-type cairn. Most of the cairn material has been removed, but what remains stretches out as far as the monoliths and is turf-covered.
The kerb can be traced for three-quarters of its circuit. The stones are mostly small and flush with the surface, but those on the south-west are slightly larger and stand 1ft 9ins high. No structure is visible within the kerb.
The three remaining monoliths range from 4ft to 5ft in height. In 1884 a prone monolith, now broken up, was visible to the NNW while, in 1881, there were one or two more monoliths still standing, one on the east side being described as 3ft high and 1ft 6ins wide, with eight cup marks on its upper surface and three on its south side (A S Henshall 1963).
A similar site (NH84NE 2) lay only some 16ft to the NE, until about 1840.
W Jolly 1882; J Fraser 1884; A S Henshall 1963, visited 12 April 1957.
The remains of this Clava-type cairn are generally as described and planned by Henshall, although the kerb can now only be clearly traced for a short arc in the west. The site has been used as a field-clearance heap.
The cup marked monolith could not be located.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 16 November 1965.
Field Visit (May 1978)
Little Urchany 1 (NRN 5) NH 866 485 NH84NE 1 & 8
This Clava cairn measures about 11 m in diameter and is flanked on the W by three standing stones. In 1881 there was at least one other standing stone, which bore several cup-marks; no trace of this remains. A second cup-marked stone, now at Cawdor Castle, may have been robbed from Little Urchany 1 or 2.
RCAHMS 1978, visited May 1978
Jolly 1882, 328-9, 358; Henshall 1963-72, i, 388
