Carn Glas, Mains Of Kilcoy
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Carn Glas, Mains Of Kilcoy
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Canmore ID 12837
Site Number NH55SE 6
NGR NH 57842 52065
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12837
- Council Highland
- Parish Killearnan
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NH55SE 6 5784 5206.
(NH 5784 5206) Carn Glas (OE)
OS 6"map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1907)
Carn Glas (Kilcoy I)
This chambered cairn of the Camster type ( i.e. Orkney-Cromarty, rectangular, round) has been very much reduced by the removal of stone. When excavated by Woodham in 1955 (A A Woodham and M F Woodham 1959) it measured some 70 ft. in dia. and the outer part of the passage had been destroyed to remain only as a north wall of one boulder and a south wall of two stones - this surviving part being 4 ft. long and 2 ft. 3 ins wide at the outer end. The bi-partite chamber is 9 ft. long and 4 to 5 ft. wide; entrance to each compartment is between a pair of transverse slabs 1 ft. 3 ins to 2 ft. 6 ins. high - each with a flat sill stone between. The chambers are composed of single slabs each about 2 ft. 9 ins high but the pointed end stone is 5 ft. 3 ins, high. Relics included secondary Neolithic and Beaker pottery, a leaf-shaped and a barbed arrowhead; this would seem to imply two successive burials or periods of burial with the interval between being indeterminate.
A A Woodham 1956; A S Henshall 1963; R W Feachem 1963.
Carn Glas, a bracken and whin covered chambered cairn, now 1.1m high, is as described above. The chamber, 1.0m deep, is partially filled with rubble stones.
Re-surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 21 January 1965.
No change.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 3 March 1989.
Field Visit (June 1979)
Carn Glas, Mains of Kilcoy (ROS 12) NH 578 520 NH55SE 6
An Orkney-Cromarty cairn situated 800m NNE of Mains of Kilcoy farmhouse; originally much larger, it now measures about 21.5m in diameter and 1.3m in height, and contains a two-compartment chamber entered from the ENE. Excavations in 1955-6 yielded, from the chamber and passage, sherds of Beaker and rusticated wares, a leaf-shaped arrowhead, a flint chip, a scatter of white quartz and what may have been part of an arrowshaft. These finds, together with a barbed-and-tanged arrowhead found in 1906, are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS EO 345, 958-63).
RCAHMS 1979, visited June 1979
Woodham 1956, 68, no. 2; Woodham and Woodham 1957; Henshall 1963-72, i, 342-3;
Clarke 1970, ii, 520-1, nos. 1757-9; Feachem 1977, 58
Excavation (February 2014 - October 2015)
NH 57857 52062 (Canmore ID: 12837. SMR ID: MHG9014) Three local community heritage groups collaborated with two members of Archaeology Scotland’s Adopt-a-Monument scheme to restore and prepare for public engagement a neglected Neolithic Orkney-Cromarty chambered cairn.
Carn Glas is one of six Neolithic cairns on the Mulbuie Ridge at the base of the Black Isle. It was excavated first by Lord Abercromby in 1906 and then by Anthony Woodham in two seasons, 1955-6. After 1956 the excavated cairn was left open, and not backfilled. In subsequent years the inner chambers had become severely vegetated and overgrown. Three individuals, representatives of three local heritage groups, in late 2014 took on the task of restoring the cairn to the condition in which it had been left by Dr Woodham. Clearing the vegetation on the cairn was undertaken by members of the three organisations in February 2014. Following permission from Historic Scotland, subsequent work with the Adopt-a-Monument team to clean and restore the interior of the chambers occurred during site visits on three separate occasions from November 2014 to September 2015. The newly restored cairn was officially ‘opened’ in a small ceremony on 12 October 2015, attended by over 60 members of the public, as well as Dr Alison Sheridan of National Museums of Scotland and Colin Woodham, son of the 1950s excavator.
Work inside the chambers included cleaning the upstanding stones, removing accreted debris from the chamber floors and restoring a significant side stone that had fallen into the ante-chamber. No new artefactual remains were identified. The chamber floors were then covered with chipped stones, and a new display board erected on the edge of the cairn.
Archive: Highland Council HER and National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) intended. Report: Archaeology Scotland
Funder: Archaeology Scotland
Roland Spencer-Jones, Graham Clarke, Alasdair Cameron, Phil Richardson and Fiona Watson – North of Scotland Archaeological Society, Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands, North Kessock and District Local History Society, and Archaeology Scotland
(Source: DES, Volume 16)
