Barr A' Chuirn
Burial Cairn (Bronze Age)
Site Name Barr A' Chuirn
Classification Burial Cairn (Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) The Lady's Seat
Canmore ID 39465
Site Number NR89NW 24
NGR NR 81225 97854
NGR Description Centre
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/39465
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilmartin
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR89NW 24 8122 9782.
(NR 8123 9784) Cairn (NR) Cist (NR) (Cist not shown on 1st edition 6" map)
OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)
A cairn, 55' in diameter and about 8' high, in which a grooved and rebated short cist was found, when the cairn was partially excavated by White and Mapleton in 1865. It is still visible.
There is some confusion as to what was actually found during the excavation. White says one cist containing ashes, together with an unenclosed skeleton, the heads towards the SW were found, while Mapleton says two cists were found with, between them, a skeleton of later date - probably put there by the men who destroyed the cairn (information from R J Mapleton to Simpson).
The cover and end slabs of the cist appear to have been used in the construction of a seat, built into the side of the cairn, which presumably accounts for the name Craw gives the site - "Lady's Seat".
J H Craw 1930; T P White 1865; J Y Simpson 1868; M Campbell, J G Scott and S Piggott 1963.
A cairn as described. It is now much obscured by fallen trees and a path has been constructed around its perimeter. An almost complete cist survives in the centre of the cairn. If the stones used in the construction of the seat on the E side of the cairn are from a cist, there must originally have been two.
Revised at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (W D J) 17 March 1970.
"I examined one hill that had a small cairn on the top, that was disturbed a few years ago to make a seat, and at that time "something" was found. I suspect that this was an urn. I found the remains of an ordinary cist, ie. there were slabs that seemed as though they had been used for that purpose; but I also found two burials in a rough kind of cist, formed by a corner of the rock, and supplemented by two slabs to form the square; both contained burnt bone." (Mapleton 1870).
R J Mapleton 1870; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
NR 8122 9784. No change to the report of 17 March 1970.
Near the centre of the cairn is an open cist measuring 0.9m by 0.7m and 0.5m deep. Its capstone was not evident. No other cist could be seen. Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (T R G) 14 April 1977.
Field Visit (April 1984)
This cairn is situated on a subsidiary summit of Barr a' Chuirn at a point about 450 m NW of Ballygowan and 280 m SSW of the fort No.235.1 In the 19th century a seat, constructed of large slabs and called the Lady's Seat, was set up on the cairn to take advantage of the extensive views, particularly to the S and E; the views are now obscured by trees.
The cairn measures some 15 m in diameter and still stands to a height of 2.5 m; a path providing access to the seat has disturbed the cairn and altered its shape, but a central cist is still partly visible.
Mapleton, who excavated here in the middle of the 19th century, is said to have found the remains of two cists and some burnt bones, with 'a skeleton of later date, between the two cists, but probably put there by the men who destroyed the cairn' (PSAS 1864-6). In 1929 Craw re-examined the site and found that the central cist had chamfered and grooved slabs (Craw 1930). The cist is aligned ENE and WSW, and the E end-slab is now missing; the cist measured about 1 m by 0.5 m and about 0.3 m in depth internally. The N side-slab is grooved at the W end, the groove being 40 mm broad.
The Lady's Seat probably makes use of the slabs from several cists, but it is itself now rather obscured by trees. A postcard in NMRS shows that it was constructed of three large slabs at the back, one forming the seat itself, supported on slabs, and two smaller upright stones at each end.
Visited April 1984
RCAHMS 1988
Measured Survey (29 April 1984)
RCAHMS surveyed Barr a' Chuirn cairn on 29 April 1984 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:100. The plan of the cairn was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:250 (RCAHMS 1988a, 55).
Note (16 May 2001)
A postcard (NMRS: A22534/po), which purports to show 'The Lady's Seat', a stone bench constructed in the 19th century from the cover and end-slabs of a cist or cists from this cairn and is referred to elsewhere (RCAHMS 1988, pp 55-6, No. 33), has recently been identified as being of another, similar, site nearby (see NM80SW 18).
Information from RCAHMS (JRS), 16 May 2001.
Field Visit (13 March 2019)
The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed.
