Craigmaddie Muir 2 And Blochairn

NS57NE 23 58 76.

At the end of the 18th century chambers were noted beneath two cairns in the vicinity of Craigmaddie Muir (NS 5876), but neither can be positively identified with either NS57NE 17 or 37. At that time Craigmaddie Muir was almost certainly part of the farm of Blochairn, on which the Rev J Cooper (OSA 1795) states were 'several...cairns, some of them oblong, and other...circular' (see also NS56NE 29, NS56NE 33, NS56NE 34 and 36). He recorded that 'large flags placed on edge, in two parallel rows, at the distance of between 3 or 4 feet (0.9m, 1.2m), lidded over with flags laid across, the cavity thus formed is divided by partitions into cells of 6 or 7 feet (1.8m, 2.1m) long' were found beneath two of the cairns without specifying whether they were circular or oblong; however, he goes on to say that 'in one of the long cairns lately broken up, were found several fragments of a large coarsely fabricated urn, and some pieces of human bone'. Whether or not this long cairn covered a chamber is not made clear, but it is probably the smaller of the two 'elliptical' cairns which, according to Ure (1793), both covered chambers. The larger cairn measured '60 yards (55m) in length, and 10 (9m) in breadth' and had been almost entirely destroyed by 1793.

Ure's description, however, although published before the Statistical Account (OSA), was probably based on information provided by Cooper.

RCAHMS 1963; 1982; J G Scott 1969; A S Henshall 1972

No traces of these chambered cairns were found.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 3 May 1966