Achnagoul
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Achnagoul
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Canmore ID 23369
Site Number NN00NE 9
NGR NN 0617 0580
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23369
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Inveraray
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NN00NE 9 0617 0580.
NN 061 058: This Clyde-type chambered cairn is in rough grazing, at nearly 500' OD, in undulating country, about 1/4 mile N of chambered cairn NN00NE 8. It measures 50' x 38', and has been much robbed. The cairn now stands 3' high with an irregular surface overgrown with grass and bracken. An old dyke runs along the NW side of the cairn. There is a concave facade facing NE. At the N tip there is a 3' high stone , and two more stones NW of the chamber entrance, 2' and 2'4" high. The SE portal stone is 3' high and another stone beside it is 2'9" high. The E tip is not easy to define, but a stone only just visible may be a broken orthostat, and a slab set on edge projecting 6" seems to indicate the NE end of the SE side of the cairn. The NW portal stone of the chamber, and presumably also other orthostats of the facade, are missing. There is a certain amount of cairn material in the forecourt, now level with the top of the sill stone, 1'7" high, at the chamber entrance. The chamber, which has been cleared out, is 14'3" long, is constructed with three slabs in each wall and an endstone. It is divided into two compartments by a septal stone firmly wedged between the central stones of each side, which overlap the other side stones on their inner faces.
A S Henshall 1972; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
NN 0617 0581: Generally as described.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (D W R) 15 March 1973.
Antiquarian Observation (1896)
Manuscript notes and four drawings of Achnagoul chambered cairn, prepared by William Galloway in 1896, probably for the Marquis of Lorne.
Field Visit (June 1979)
This cairn (Campbell and Sandeman 1964) is situated 190m N of the cairn Achnagoul 1 (NN00NE 8) on a slight rise in a clearing within a forestry plantation; now heavily robbed and crossed by a ruined field-wall, it measures 18m by 12m and 1.2m in greatest height. At the NE end there is a concave forecourt, where the two outermost and three other stones of the facade, and the portal stone, remain in position, projecting up to 0.85m above the level of the blocking material in the forecourt. The top of the portal stone, however, is 1.35m above the floor of the now roofless chamber, which is entered from the centre of the facade, with a sill-stone lying immediately behind the portal stone. Each side of the chamber is composed of three slabs, the central stone in each case overlapping its flankers and wedged by the septal slab so as to buttress the otherwise poorly supported side-slabs*. The stones on the SE side appear to have been slightly displaced. The septal slab divides the chamber into two compartments, the outer rectangular on plan, the inner trapezoidal, and each of them is about 0.8m deep. A slab lying beneath the septal stone may indicate that the floors of the compartments are paved.
Visited June 1979
RCAHMS 1988
*For a discussion of the significance of jamb-and-septal construction see Scott, J G, 'The Clyde Cairns of Scotland', in Daniel and Kjaerum (eds), Megalithic Graves and Ritual (1973), 119-22)
Measured Survey (20 June 1979)
RCAHMS surveyed Achnagoul 2 chambered cairn on 20 June 1979 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:100. The plan of the cairn was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:250 (RCAHMS 1988a, 38)
