Clacharie, Pyatshaw

NT54NE 6 5855 4853

(NT 5855 4853) Cairn (NR) (site of)

OS 6" map (1968)

The results of the excavations carried out at Clacharie cairn in 1863 were:

Cairn 'A': Trenches cut N-S and E-W revealed on the SE side three cists, 1 1/2ft below the surface. One of these, about 1 1/2ft deep, was nearly filled with black ashes, charred wood and bird, animal and human bones, all broken small but not burnt. The second cist, 2ft N of the first, contained a cinerary urn inverted on a stone and containing ashes and fragments of charred wood and bones. Round the outside of this cist was found part of a circle of upright stones, standing 6ins to 1ft above the ground. The third cist, which was full of black ashes and bones, was situated 3ft E of the second, and built against the end of a wall which ran nearly round the inside of the cairn. This wall was built of large stones, about 2ft broad and 1 1/2ft above the ground, and intersected in three places by cross-passages 8 - 9ins wide. It formed an egg-shaped enclosure with the small ent to the N, and here was a corbelled cell or chimney, also egg-shaped, filled with gravel. In it were found pieces of clay burnt red, and one clay brick. Deposits of ashes and bones were found in three places on the E and S sides of the cairn. Two flint implements, three or four stone 'celts', a stone arrow- or spear-head, and several possible sling-stones were found.

Cairn 'B': A slight rise in the ground some 50ft SE of 'A' was also investigated. Two feet down, a cist was discovered, apparently similar to those found in cairn 'A'. This was opened, and digging down for a further 5ft revealed a great deposit of black ashes, pieces of charred wood, and sticky black matter, which continued to a depth of 10ft from the surface. At a depth of about 1ft below the surface, the whole of this mound was built over with stones laid like a causeway and honeycombed with small open 'cists' about 8ins across and 6ins deep. 'C': A circular mass of the same kind of causewayed construction, but without the little open cists, was found about 40ft NE of 'B'. Here also were found some scattered ashes and bones, about 3ft below the surface.

J Y Simpson 1865

Cairn, Clacharie: Situated in a cultivated field some 300 yds N of Pyatshaw, at an elevation of about 700ft OD. It was excavated by Lady John Scott and afterwards reconstructed.

RCAHMS 1915.

The cinerary urn, and also a flint knife, 1 15/16 ins in length, a flint implement, 1 3/8 ins in length, and a flint flake 1 5/8 ins in length, from Cairn 'A' and formerly in the collection of Lady John Scott, were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1920 (Accession nos: EA 181, AA 202-3 and AB 1460).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1921

At NT 5855 4853, on the site of Clacharie Cairn ('A') is a modern circular walled construction in two tiers. The outer wall of the lower part is of large stones, the interior being filled with rubble; the upper section is composed of large stones. A large triangular stone, inscribed 'Clacharie' caps the cairn.

There is no trace of the other two features mentioned by Simpson, but at NT 5856 4857, some 28m SE of cairn 'A', is a slight circular depression,4m in diameter, which may be the site of cairn 'B' as this depression is on the slight rise mentioned by him.

Visited by OS (CJP) 4 October 1956 and (RDL) 10 October 1962.