Tangy Loch

NR62NE 6 6909 2866.

(NR 6908 2866) An indefinite, heather-covered mound, into whose ENE end a square megalithic "cist" has been sunk, has been classified as the possible remains of a long cairn, but the mound is probably natural and the local tradition that the 'cist' is a well is probably correct.

A S Henshall 1972; J G Scott 1969

Cist: Four slabs, apparently the remains of a large cist can be seen protruding slightly above ground 455m NW of Tangy Loch and 45m E of the Allt Trasda. The cist, now roofless, lies in open moorland at a height of 150m OD and is aligned NE and SW. The slabs forming the NW side and the NE end are still in position and measure respectively 1.5m and 1.2m in length. The SE side-slab has been displaced and now leans outwards; it measures 1.4m in length, and at its SW end the top of a fourth stone, 0.3m long, is just visible above ground. All the slabs are from 0.20m to 0.25m thick. The SW end of the cist is open, but a few stones, which lie embedded in the turf at this point, may be broken fragments of the missing end-slab, and suggest that the cist was originally about 1.2m long internally, while the surviving NE end-slab indicates a breadth of about one metre. The interior is at least 1.1m deep and at the present time is waterlogged and largely choked with moss and rushes. There is no trace of any surrounding cairn-material. About 23m to the SW two isolated earthfast slabs, situated some 6m apart and measuring respectively 1.1m and 0.6m in length, rise to a maximum height of 0.8m above ground, but it seems unlikely that these are in any way connected with the cist.

RCAHMS 1971, visited 1965

The date and purpose of this setting of slabs, as described by RCAHMS, is uncertain. If its purpose was funerary, its dimensions would be more likely those of a chamber than a cist, but the indefinite mound noted by Colville appears entirely natural with no stones showing, and its heather covering is identical to that of the surrounding ground surface. It may be a well but the nearest evidence of human occupation is a whisky still 200.0m to the south.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (NKB) 12 December 1977