Carie

NN63NW 193 63412 37065.

This Clyde-type chambered cairn is situated in rough grazing 40m N of the A827 road and 1.4km WSW of Carie farmsteading, at a height of 250m OD. It stands on the NE edge of a low ridge of broken ground littered with erratic boulders and outcropping bedrock, bounded on the N and E by boggy ground. It has been extensively robbed and now appears as grass-grown oval spread of stones, about 0.2m high. A turf-and-stone field dyke obscures its N edge, but it probably measured about 16m from E to W by 9m transversely.

The remains of two chambers are visible, the better preserved of which is an axial chamber towards the E end of the cairn. This has two compartments, each defined by a pair of side-slabs and separated by a septal slab. The E end of the E compartment is poorly defined, but it has measured at least 2.7m in length by 1.7m in breadth, narrowing to 1.5m at its W end. The S side-slab measures 2m in length and 0.8m in height, and the N side-slab measures 1.9m in length and 0.4m in height. There is a gap, up to 1m wide, between these side-slabs and the W compartment; it may be that another pair of side-slabs has been lost, though it is possible that the two earthfast stones protruding from the turf, one against the inner edge of the W end of each side-slab, are the top edges (or the stumps) of just such a pair. The W compartment has lost its end slab, but it has measured about 2.1m in length by 1.2m in breadth, tapering to 1m at the W end. The S side-slab measures 2.1m in length and 0.7m in height, while the N slab, much of which probably lies beneath the turf, measures at least 1.3m in length and 0.1m in height. The septal slab measures 0.35m in height and has apparently been secured by two stones set against its E face. Finally, there are several large slabs firmly embedded in the turf at the open E end of the chamber and just beyond, which may have been either capstones to the chamber or parts of a façade to the cairn.

The second chamber has been set transversely to the axis of the cairn about 3.5m from its W end. It is defined by three edge-set stones protruding up to 0.2m above ground, two on the W side of the chamber, one on the E side. Thus defined, the chamber has measured at least 1.7m in length by 0.9m in breadth, but a shallow grass-grown hollow immediately S of these slabs, probably the result of robbing, suggests that the chamber formerly extended at least another 2.5m towards the S edge of the cairn.

(BL00 1927)

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH and MFTR) 28 November 2000.