Achnacree, Carn Ban

Surveyed at 2mm:1ft, with detail from Smith (1873). Redrawn in ink and published at 1:250 (RCAHMS 1975, fig. 7).

NM 922 363. This impressive cairn stands in trees on the N edge of the Moss of Achnacree at a distance of 0·6 km SW of the farmhouse of Achnacreemore. The peat does not appear to have grown over the perimeter of the cairn, but leaves a natural hollow round it which may be compared with the hollow surrounding cairn No. 64. The cairn was excavated by Smith in 1871 and, as the passage and chamber are no longer accessible, the following description and plan (Fig. 7) are partly based on the published report (PSAS, ix (1870-2), 409-15).

The cairn is about 24.4 m in diameter and now stands to a height of some 3'4 m on the S and 4'1 m on the NE, although it is said to have been about 4.6 m high before excavation; it consists of small and medium-sized stones, interspersed with a few large boulders. A low platform of cairn material, now grass-covered and about1 m high, extends round the base of the cairn and increases the overall diameter to about 40 m. The entrance to the passage is on the SE side of the cairn and is marked by four upright stones, one of which is now leaning out of position. The central pair, set about 1'2 m apart and protruding 1'3 m and 0'4 m above the cairn material, are the portal stones on either side of the passage, while the flanking pair may be the remains of a shallow forecourt (Henshall, 355). The passage, which measured 6'4 min length and 0·6 m in width, was constructed of upright slate slabs about 1 m in height, and the roof was composed of similar slabs. The excavator recorded that the passage was filled with stones, and these seem to indicate a deliberate blocking after the final burial-deposit. The chamber comprised three compartments. The outer, measuring 1·8 m by 1'2 m and about 2'1m in height, was constructed of upright slabs and dry-stone walling supplemented by corbelling, and was covered by a single capstone. The central compartment, measuring 2'0 m by 0'7 m and 1·6 m in height, was entered across a large transverse slab, and the entrance itself appeared to have been deliberately sealed with stones 'built firmly in after the chamber had been completed (PSAS, ix (1870-2), 413). The sides of this chamber were formed of blocks of stone supplemented by dry-stone walling, and it was roofed by a single capstone. The inner compartment was entered across a sill-stone, and measured 1'4 m by 0'9 m and 1'7 m in height. A combination of slabs and dry-stone walling had been employed in its construction, and it was roofed by a single massive capstone some 0'4 m thick. Each side-wall was constructed of two slabs set lengthwise one above the other, in such a way that a narrow ledge was formed at their junction. On these two ledges a number of white quartz pebbles had been deliberately deposited. One end of the capstone of the inner compartment can still be seen in the disturbed central crater of the cairn, through which Smith gained access to the chamber. Three Neolithic pottery bowls were discovered in the course of the excavation-a fragmentary vessel from the outer compartment, and one complete (Pl. 3A) and one' fragmentary bowl from the inner compartment. These finds are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland.

About 9 m to the NW of the edge of the cairn the tops of three upright slabs can be seen, and it is possible that these are what Smith described as the remains of a cist (Ibid, 99); their present arrangement, however, is not consistent with this interpretation, and it seems unlikely that they belong to a prehistoric structure.

RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1971