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Lynegar House, Oslie Cairn

Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)

Site Name Lynegar House, Oslie Cairn

Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)

Canmore ID 8740

Site Number ND25NW 1

NGR ND 2271 5679

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/8740

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Watten
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Caithness
  • Former County Caithness

Archaeology Notes

ND25NW 1 2271 5679

(ND 2271 5679) Oslie Cairn (NAT) Chambered Cairn (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

This is an Orkney-Cromarty type round cairn (? Camster-type chamber). The RCAHMS (1911) describe it as a 'grass-covered hillock which seems to be a chambered cairn. On the summit just protruding through the soil is the edge of a large slab lying NNW and SSE, measuring about 6ft 5ins in length and 9 or 10ins in thickness, while parallel to its ENE face at either end and 2 to 3ft distant are two shorter slabs about 1ft 9ins in length. The outline of the mound is very indefinite, but the diameter appears to be from 50 to 60ft. In 1956, the cairn had been reduced, and only one slab was visible.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910; A S Henshall 1963, visited 1956

All that now remains of this cairn is an oval grass-covered mound measuring 13.0 by 5.0m. It stands 0.8m high and is surmounted by a stone slab set on edge. It is now impossible to determine the cairn's character.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (R D) 27 October 1965

The chambered cairn survives as a partially turf-covered mound 14.5m NNE-SSW by 8.0m transversely and 1.0m high, in which are the large slab and the two shorter slabs noted by Miss Henshall. The original perimeter of the cairn is barely traceable.

Visited by OS (J M) 2 March 1982

The last remnant of this cairn is in an arable field which slopes gently down to the S to the shore of Loch Watten. The cairn is at 25m OD, 150m from the loch. It has now been reduced to an oval area measuring 16m N-S by 4m across and 0.8m high, onto which field stones have been gathered. Near the centre the tops of two slabs can be seen 1m apart. The NE slab is 0.5m long, 0.15m thick, and just protrudes. The SW slab, which leans slightly to the SW, is 1.55m long, 0.3m thick and is exposed for 0.4m on the SW side. These two slabs together with the third slab seen in 1910 probably belong to the end compartment of a chamber the axis of which ran ENE-WSW.

Visited 4 October 1988.

J L Davidson and A S Henshall 1991

Chambered cairn, Oslie cairn. Dimensions: 33 x 29m. Subcircular grass-covered mound 1.2m high with a central depression 11 x 5m, the remains of a chamber.

R J Mercer, NMRS MS/828/19, 1995

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