Clach Na Tiompan
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Clach Na Tiompan
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Alternative Name(s) Clach-na-tiom-pan; Clach Na Tiom-pan; Clach Na Tiompamn; Glen Almond; River Almond
Canmore ID 25562
Site Number NN83SW 1
NGR NN 82965 32872
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/25562
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Monzievaird And Strowan
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NN83SW 1 8296 3289
See also NN83SW 2.
(NN 8296 3289) Clach na Tiom-pan (NAT)
OS 6" map (1901)
A chambered cairn of Clyde-Carlingford type, excavated in 1954. Oriented SE-NW, it measures 190' long x 38' broad in the SE narrowing to 20' in the NW, and stands 5' high in the SE, diminishing until it is negligible in the NW. In plan the ends are rounded. There is no axial chamber or facade but there were four lateral chambers entered from the SW side. Three were excavated; a fourth, visible in 1910, had been totally destroyed. The cairn has evidently been greatly robbed and disturbed, probably in connection with the road which passes it on the SW side.
A S Henshall and M E C Stewart 1956; A S Henshall 1972.
As described and planned. Name confirmed.
Surveyed at at 1:10,000 scale.
Visited by OS (RD) 20 November 1970
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (JP) 7 October 1975.
Scheduled (with NN83SW 2) as 'Clach na Tiompan, long cairn, standing stone and cairn... a chambered cairn of prehistoric date, visible as a stony mound, and the remains of a small circle of standing stones enclosing a small cairn'.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 4 February 2003.
Publication Account (1987)
None of the small number of chambered cairns in Tayside is well preserved or readily accessible, but the location and unusual length of the cairn at Clach na Tiompan make it an interesting site to visit. Situated on a terrace some 15 m above the north bank of the River Almond, the cairn must have formed the centre of the religious life of a small farming community. Some sense of the duration of this activity is given by the fact that the long cairn is almost certainly a structure of several periods, because four burial chambers have been incorporated into its small length,although their sequence of building is a matter of conjecture.
The cairn, aligned north-west and south-east is some 57 m long and up to 11.5 m broad at its south-east end. The best-preserved chamber was found near this end; the main compartment was composed of four large slabs and a capstone with two small compartments leading from an impressive facade of upright slabs on the south-west The final blocking of the entrance was still in position, as shown on the photograph, with six slabs carefully wedged into position to prevent access to the tomb. No burial remains were discovered, as the tomb had been rifled perhaps when the road was built in the last century.
About 43 m to the south of the long cairn (on the south side of the road), a standing stone and the stump of a second are the remains of one of the distinctive 'four-poster' settings of Perth shire; excavation revealed the positions of the missing two stones.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
