Arran, Tormore

NR83SE 4 8945 3242.

(NR 8945 3243) Stone Cist, Urn and Beads found AD 1909 (NAT)

OS 6" map, (1924).

There is said to have been a large cairn at Tormore which has been totally removed. The last remnants of a chamber or cist survive in the steading of Rowanbank, one of the smaller farms into which Tormore has been divided. All that can be seen are two parallel stones 2ft 6ins apart projecting 2ft 8ins into the yard from the byre wall.

The 1910 description gives the stones as 'heavy slabs, 3ft 6ins and 3ft 6 1/2ins high. Parallel with the inner side of the wall, and coinciding with it, is a transverse slab 29ins high. Traditionally, an urn was found when digging the wall foundations 50 years ago'. Excavations in 1909 produced no more of the structure. Artifacts found were part of a jet necklace, and a fragment of a probable food vessel - now in the NMAS (Acc Nos EQ 311-2); pieces of flint and pitchstone, also found are now lost. Fragments of charcoal were noticed in the soil from the structure. From the evidence quoted, this structure may be the remains of a short cist, and it is not clear why it was considered to be part of a chamber (A S Henshall 1972, visited 1962).

Sources: J A Balfour 1910, R McLellan 1970.

There are two parallel slabs 0.7m apart projecting at an angle (see plan) from the byre wall at Rowanbank. They are 0.7m long, 0.5m high and 0.2m thick. There is no trace of the transverse slab but it may be embedded in the 2ft thick wall. It seems likely that they are the remains of a cist.

Surveyed at 1:50 and 1:2500. Photographed.

Visited by OS(TRG) 18 September 1977.