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Achnamara
Cairn(S) (Period Unassigned), Cist(S) (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Achnamara
Classification Cairn(S) (Period Unassigned), Cist(S) (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 39072
Site Number NR78NE 2
NGR NR 7825 8768
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/39072
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish North Knapdale
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR78NE 2 7825 8768
(NR 782 877) Two denuded cairns lie in a clearing in Forestry Commission Woods at the SW end of a low ridge overlooking marsh and the head of the bay.
The Western cairn ('A') is 30' in diameter x 4' high and hollow in top; 5' E the other better preserved cairn ('B') which was excavated by Childe (1937) measures 33' in diameter x 4'. It is hollow, with three cists exposed and traces of an inner ring of boulders. Two cists were robbed, but cist 3 yielded a perforated pebble, and chert and quartz chips - now in National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] - (Accession nos. EQ 520-1). No bones were found, but Childe deduced the burials were inhumations as fragments of any cremation have remained.
V G Childe 1937; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
NR 7825 8770 The remains of two cairns.
'B' the better preserved, measures 15.0m in diameter with a well-defined kerb on the N. There is no trace of the internal ring of boulders. Two cists are exposed.
'A' a few metres to the W is c. 8.0m in diameter has been so heavily robbed that only a rim of stones survives.
Surveyed at 1/10,000
Visited by OS (JP) 6 June 1973.
NR 7825 8768. The two cairns, now heavily overgrown with moss and bracken, are generally as described in the previous information.
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (BS) 20 January 1977.
Excavation (15 June 1936 - 20 June 1936)
Excavated by Childe in 1936 at the behest of James Richardson, Ministry of Works.
V G Childe 1937
Field Visit (May 1982)
There are two cairns situated close together in a forestry plantation on a terrace above the easternmost arm of the head of Loch Sween about 500m NE Achanamara. The E cairn was excavated in 1935, and the following description is largely a summary of the published report (Childe 1937; Campbell and Sandeman 1964).
The E cairn measures about 14m in diameter with several stretches of kerbstones still in position, particularly round the NE arc. Of the three cists that were uncovered during the excavation, only two are now exposed. Cist 1 was covered by a large slab (1.37m by 0.9m) and measured about 0.9m by 0.6m and 0.6m deep internally. The disposition of the visible slabs now differs slightly from that of the excavation plan. Cist 2 was covered by a capstone measuring 1.3m by 0.9m and had perhaps been sealed by a second slab (1.2m by 1.07m), which wqas lying on the surface of the cairn material nearby. The SW end-slab had already been moved, and on the date of visit both it and the SE side-slab were missing. The cist appears to have been about 1m long, 0.45m broad and 0.2m deep. The third cist, which lay to the W of the other two, was found to be indisturbed. Aligned roughly N and S, it measured 0.6m by 0.4m and 0.4m in depth internally and was covered by a capstone 0.68m long and 0.6m broad, which had several other flat slabs laid horizontally on top of it.
No burial-remains were found in any of the cists, but in the third cist there was a flat oval pebble with a central perforation, which may have been a pendant. Chert and quartz chips were also recovered in the course of the excavation.
The W cairn, which adjoins the E cairn, appears as a low stony mound about 9m in diameter and 0.5m high, but fallen trees make precise measurement impossible.
RCAHMS 1988, visited May 1982.
