Skail

NC74NW 4 7129 4690.

(NC 7129 4690) Chambered Cairns (NR)

OS 6" map, (1962)

An Orkney - Cromarty type round cairn, with a polygonal chamber, now almost denuded of cairn material. The cairn has had a diameter of about 66 feet, but has been so heavily robbed that the only appreciable amount of cairn material left occurs against the east side of the chamber, where it is about 4 feet high. The result is that the upright construction stones of the chamber are now exposed to almost their full height, the highest being 5 feet 8 inches tall. Walling of horizontally laid slabs occurs between the slabs. The chamber has been entered from the NE but there is now no sign of the passage.

A steatite cup with a side handle which was said to be in Dunrobin Museum in 1909 is alleged to have come from this site, but is presumably unconnected with the use of the tomb. It could not be found in 1957. An unrecorded excavation by a shooting tenant took place some years before 1909.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; A S Henshall 1963.

The cairn is as described. Robbing has left only a peripheral rim and the side-slabs of the chamber.

Visited by OS (J L D) 6 May 1960.

No change to previous field report.

Revised at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (J B) 21 July 1977.

Scheduled as 'Skail, chambered cairn... known locally as "the Temple".'

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 27 January 2003.