Drumwhirn Cairn

NX36NE 4 3935 6884.

(NX 39356884) Drumwhirn Cairn (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1979)

A conspicuous, steep-sided pile of bare stones 12' high, appearing to be circular, about 73' in diameter but interpreted in 1911 as a robbed long cairn (RCAHMS 1912, visited 1911). Around the base of the cairn is a rough, turf-covered strip with stone below the surface and sheep pens have been built on this from the cairn material. To the south a platform projects of stone below turf hardly raised above ground level and extending for about 92'. This was interpreted by RCAHMS as the tail of the long cairn and if this is correct, the cairn has been pear-shaped, 135' long NNE- SSW, by 73' at the north end and 48' at a point 25' from the rounded south end. The north end appears to have been straight across but this may be due to ploughing.

A S Henshall 1972

A round cairn generally as described by the previous authority but measuring 27.0m EW by 25.5m transversely and 4.0m in height. Attached to its S arc are the grass-covered remains of a sub-rectangular enclosure measuring 20.0m NS by 15.0m and similar in construction to several relatively modern field walls in the vicinity. There are on the same hillside many large clearance cairns probably contemporary with the field walls. The name of the cairn was not confirmed.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (BS) 21 June 1976