Carn Fada
Cairn(S) (Period Unassigned), Cist(S) (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Carn Fada
Classification Cairn(S) (Period Unassigned), Cist(S) (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 5355
Site Number NC55SE 19
NGR NC 5668 5142
NGR Description NC 5668 5142 and NC 5649 5131
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/5355
- Council Highland
- Parish Tongue
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC55SE 19 5668 5142 and 5649 5131.
Together with the graves of those killed in the nearby battle (See NC55SE 11), an "oval of middle-sized boulders, 9ft by 7ft, with what appears to me to be a kist, the upper part of the flags composing it sticking out of the earth a few inches. I was told it was for confining calves in".
J Horsburgh 1870
In one of a group of small mounds, about half-way along a ridge, a cist is exposed. The covering slab is 3ft broad and at least 3ft long; the internal width is 2ft 6ins and the longest axis in NE-SW. The mound is about 20ft in diameter.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909
The cairn described by RCAHMS and also probably by Horsburgh is at NC 5668 5142. It is heather-covered, 5.5m in diameter and 0.4m high. The cist is positioned off-centre, with capstone 1.0m by 0.8m in situ. The internal width is 0.6m; one end-slab is displaced and there is no trace of the other.
There is a further cairn 5.0m in diameter and 0.5m high at NR 5649 5131. It was being destroyed by treasure seekers at the time of investigation and the exposed cist was being removed. There was no trace of end-slabs or a cap-stone, so it had presumably been opened previously. The cairn was back-filled and no finds have been declared. Two further mounds in the vicinity have been despoiled and left open. There is no trace of cist slabs, and the mounds are assumed to be stone clearance heaps. On a flat stone in one of the mounds, the diggers had carved a crude cross. Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (NKB) 25 September 1978
