Beacharr

Chambered Cairn, Beacharr 2 (ARG 27).

This cairn stands on the spine of a ridge (75 m O.D.) about 155 m NW. of Beacharr farmhouse, and 27 m to the N. of the standing stone No. 134. The site was excavated in 1892, and was re-examined in 1959 and 1961; the following account and the plan (Fig. 10) are based on the most recent assessment of the remains (2).

At the present time the cairn is an oval grassy mound measuring about 21 m by 15 m, but it seems likely that it was originally trapezoidal on plan. The chamber was aligned approximately N. and S. and most of the stones are still visible protruding above the turf. On either side of the entrance, excavation revealed stretches of the façade which was built of dry-stone walling without orthostats, and was generally straight, although a slight outward curve visible towards the W. end was probably repeated on the E. Similar walling was found over a distance of 7.3 m on the W. side of the cairn, and the platform on which it was set appeared to have been revetted with boulders to ensure stability.

The burial-chamber, which was 6.25 m long and between 1.2 m and 1.5 m broad, is the longest of the Kintyre examples. The entrance was flanked by two portal-stones, with two low transverse slabs between them, but the W. portal had not survived and the remaining upright was only 0·84 m in height. Each side of the chamber had been constructed of three massive overlapping slabs, additionally supported by three low transverse slabs, and by a terminal slab which was almost 1.2 m high. The chamber was thus divided into four parts, comprising three burial-compartments and a short passage or porch immediately inside the entrance.

The entrance had probably been sealed with drystone walling, and in front of the façade there was a blocking of boulders and earth. It seems likely that during the final blocking the chamber, too, had been deliberately filled with earth. The burials, which may have been inhumations, had left no trace, but two pots were found in each of the three compartments (Pls. 2,3). These round-bottomed pots, which form one of the basic groups for the study of Scottish Neolithic pottery, may owe their good preservation to the fact that they were protected in the burial-chamber by slabs of schist. A jet belt-fastener or slider was found in the earth filling of the chamber, and a rim fragment of Neolithic pottery was found on the original ground surface underneath the façade blocking. Two flakes of flint and one of pitchstone were also discovered. The pottery and the jet slider are now in Campbeltown Museum; the pitchstone flake and one of the flint flakes are in Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, the other flint being lost.

RCAHMS 1971, visited May 1965.

692 433 ccxxxv ("Cist")

(1) As spelled on the O.S. map. The cairn is more commonly referred to as "Beacharra" in archaeological literature, and "Beacharra" is the standard name for the associated pottery.

(2) PPS, xxx (1964), 134 ff