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Kinbrace Burn
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Kinbrace Burn
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Alternative Name(s) Kinbrace Farm
Canmore ID 6669
Site Number NC82NE 4
NGR NC 8757 2830
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/6669
- Council Highland
- Parish Kildonan
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC82NE 4.00 8757 2830
NC82NE 4.01 NC 8755 2830 Bothies
(NC 8757 2830) Chambered Cairn (NR).
OS 6" map, (1962)
An Orkney-Cromarty type, short, horned cairn with a Camster-type chamber. It still stands 10' to 11' high, but has been greatly disturbed, especially by robbing at the edges which are so overgrown with heather that only the north and NE sides can be traced even approximately. The diameters seem to have been about 70' E-W by 63'. There are definite horns at the NW and NE corners but their limits are difficult to establish. The entrance has been from the east, the passage now starting about 20' inside the edge of the cairn, and being visible for only 4', roofed with lintels. The present entrance into the chamber is through a hole in the roof of the central compartment which reaches a height of 6'.
The cairn was excavated before 1911, the only find being a heart-shaped amulet of polished serpentine which was in Dunrobin Museum in 1911 (RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909) but was lost by 1957.
A S Henshall 1963, visited 1957.
Visited by OS (E G C) 26 May 1961
This chambered cairn is as described and planned by
Henshall; the chamber is choked with stones.
Revised at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (J B) 16 December 1976
Field Visit (31 July 1991)
This cairn is situated on heather-covered moorland; it measures 16.6m from E to W and 17.2m from N to S, but it is only on the N side that the edge is at all clearly defined with distinct horns at the NW and NE angles; at its highest the cairn is some 1.8m The chamber, which is nearly central and was entered from the E side, has been very considerably disturbed in recent years and not all the features recorded in the past can now be detected. Only the main chamber can still be seen; now filled with rubble, it measures 2.8m in length and 1.7m in breadth with corbelling still standing to a height of 1m in seven courses. There are several large disturbed slabs in the chamber and a more massive displaced slab to the N of the chamber. Several bothies have been built around the cairn.
Visited by RCAHMS (JNGR and DCC) 31 July 1991.
Management (2000)
Scheduled as 'Kinbrace Farm, cairn, burnt mound, hut circle and field system... set close together on a terrace to the S of the Kinbrace Burn.'
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 1 December 2000.
