Cameron Home Farm
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic), Cup Marked Stone (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)(Possible)
Site Name Cameron Home Farm
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic), Cup Marked Stone (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Cameron Wood; Upper Stoneymollan
Canmore ID 42492
Site Number NS38SE 6
NGR NS 37123 82137
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/42492
- Council West Dunbartonshire
- Parish Bonhill (West Dunbartonshire)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Dumbarton
- Former County Dunbartonshire
NS38SE 6 3713 8214.
(NS 3713 8214) Tumulus (NR)
OS 6" map (1923)
Long Cairn (NR)
OS 6" map (1958)
'This tumuli or ancient burying place is near the east end of Cameron Plantation. It is about 300 links long and 130 links broad: the line of graves numbers aboout 25 in two unfinished rows and on the north side of the space an immense quantity of small loose stones are collected...'
Name Book 1896
'... a collection of ancient tumuli on the high lands of Sommer, on the edge of the moor,...; the graves, of which there may be from 20 to 25, within an oblong of 200ft by 60, are of the usual description, fenced by rude and undressed stones. The covers have been mostly removed or destroyed.'
During the course of 'an investigation' about 1800, bones and stone arrowheads were found in them.
NSA 1845
The remains of this long cairn are 68.0m long by c.18.0m wide at the SE end and c.6.0m wide at the NW. It varies in height from 0.2m at the NW end to c.1.5m at the SE.
A cutting, c.4.0m wide and 3.0m deep (? the excavation of c.1800) has been made the full length of the cairn, exposing three chambers and the remains of a possible fourth. Vegetation makes it impossible to identify any others.
Visited by OS (JLD) 27 September 1956 and (WDJ) 25 January 1963.
Measured Survey (1964)
Field Visit (17 March 1967)
The site is at 450 ft, on the hillside overlooking the send of Loch Lomond. The remains of the cairn are in a strip of woodland which divides the higher fields of poor grazing from the more fertile lower fields. The position of the cairn is flat, on a ridge, but the ground drops steeply into a gully along its N side. The cairn is difficult to examine, for it bears thick bracken, dead trees lie on and around the site, and it has recently been planted with larches.
The cairn has been considerably robbed and several deep holes have been dug into it. Some of this disturbance happened about 1800 (en.1). The long axis lies ESE-WNW, and the maximum width at the ESE end seems to be about 42 ft. The edge is difficult to define except for about go ft at the E end of the s side where it is reasonably clear, and a kerb stone projects to in. high. The cairn material seems to die away between 70 and 80 ft behind the facade, but it extends about 20 ft in front of the facade. The cairn was formerly recorded as about 200 ft long. At its maximum, around the facade and the chamber, it is 3 or 4 ft high.
Four facade stones can be seen, forming a slightly concave line. At the s corner is a square-section flat-topped stone, which, in a hole dug on its W side, is exposed for a height of 2 ft 4 in. To the n the pointed tops of two stones are just visible. The northernmost stone is a large slab, 3 ft 3 in. long and exposed for a height of 2 ft 2 in. in a hole dug against its E face.
Behind the facade the remains of an axial chamber are exposed in the SW side of a roughly rectangular pit. The side slab is 6 ft 7 in. long, but its NW end is not exposed. On the SW side of its SE end there is an upright stone, projecting a few inches above the narrow level upper edge of the side slab. The side slab is exposed to a height of 1 ft 2 in., but loose stones fill the bottom of the pit. These two stones presumably represent the SW side of the chamber.
Twenty-five feet NW of this chamber is a small square chamber, the interior of which has been dug out. Its axis lies askew to that of the cairn. Internally it measures 4 ft to in. by 3 ft g in. The slab on the NE side is the largest, and is exposed to its full height of 3 ft 3 in. The NW and SE stones are a few inches lower and are thinner. The SW stone is much lower, but was probably taller originally as it is laminating. Its presumed junction with the SE stone is obscured at present. Otherwise the stones fit together neatly, with the NW end of the NE stone projecting for an unknown distance beyond the NW stone. The upper edges of the stones are level. Outside the chamber, set at an angle to its SE side, is another upright stone. It appears to be part of the structure, for its vertical w face can be seen to descend for a 1 ft 10 in. through the cairn material.
Some thirty feet beyond the traceable end of the cairn there are two small contiguous stones. The NW stone, 1 ft high and g in. thick, is aligned on the centre line of the cairn. The other stone, set transversely to its SE end, is 1 ft to in. high.
The old account of the cairn mentions ‘the graves, of which there may be from twenty to twenty-five’.
Finds. Bones and stone arrowheads were said to have been discovered in the graves during investigation about 1800.
Henshall 1972, visited 17 March 1967
(NSA, viii(1845), 222-3; Meg. Eng. (1969) 322)
Field Visit (August 1977)
The remains of what is probably a Clyde cairn lie in a forestry plantation overlooking the S end of Loch Lomond. The cairn measures 25m by 12m and is orientated ESE-WNW. Four facade stones can be seen on the E and at least one kerb-stone survives on the S. Immediately behind the facade there are the remains of the axial chamber and 7.6m to the N there is a further chamber.
RCAHMS 1978, visited August 1977
Casual Observation (25 December 2016)
NS 37145 82120 (Canmore ID: 42492) At the SE end of a cairn is a moss covered boulder with at least eight clear circular cup marks, which are up to 20mm deep on its southern face. Other less distinct depressions on both the southern and eastern faces may also be cup marks.
Martin McCarthy
(Source: DES, Volume 18)
