Campbell's Mount, Altimarlach

ND35SW 3 3315 5256

(ND 3315 5256) Tumulus (NR)

OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

For the modern cross at this site, see ND35SW 1.

Excavated by Rhind in 1856, this mound is known as "Campbell's Mount" and was erroneously asserted to cover one or more of the combatants in the Battle of Altimarlach (ND35SW 1).

The mound, about 50ft in diameter and not more than 5ft high, enclosed a heap of stones within each was a cist or small vault 7ft long. Each end of the cist was formed by one upright slab and the sides were of roughly coursed stones. The remains in the cist had not been cremated but had so decayed that only a pulpy skull was left at the W end. Between this skull and the E end of the cist was a shallow cup of coarse clay 5 1/2ins in diameter.

A H Rhind 1859.

This mound is 5.0m in diameter and 0.5m high while on the N it is level with the ground. It would appear that the original tumulus has disappeared and that the small mound at the site is merely the modern base on which the cross commemorating the battle of Altimarlach has been erected.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (R D L) 26 April 1963.

Cross (NAT) on site of (NAT) Cairn (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1968)

No change to the previous field report.

Visited by OS (J M) 28 July 1982

Cairn, Campbell's Mound. The site of a cairn, surmounted by a nineteenth century cross [ND35SW 1] to commemorate the Battle of Altimarlach. No trace of the cairn survives.

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