Site type CAIRN
Canmore ID 22837
Site Number NM80SW 21
NGR NM 8338 0067
Council ARGYLL AND BUTE
Parish KILMARTIN
Former Region STRATHCLYDE
Former District ARGYLL AND BUTE
Former County ARGYLL

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Archaeological Notes

NM80SW 21 8338 0067.

(NM 8338 0067) Cairn (NR).
OS 1:10,000 map, (1974)

About 140 yards SW of the standing stones (NM80SW 22), and on the eastern slope of hillside rising from the west side of Kilmartin Glen, stand the remains of a cairn. Before excavation in 1930 the cairn measured 90' by 93' and had a maximum height of 8'3". During excavation, a cist measuring 3'11" by 2'1" and 1'6" deep was found about 14 feet SSE of centre. The cover, which lay about a foot below the surface, measured 6'1" by 4'6" by 8". The cist contained a tripartite type food vessel (now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] - Accession no. HPO6), some charcoal and some ochre. More charcoal and two flint fragments were found outside the cist.
The cairn had no surrounding ring of boulders, but a partial ring of large boulders within the cairn was traced. Most of the area covered by the cairn had a paving of boulders.
M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964; J H Craw 1931.

The cairn now measures about 30 metres NE-SW by 27 metres transversely, and stands about 1-3 metres high. It has been severely robbed and mutilated and no trace of a cist or kerb can be seen.
Surveyed at 1:2500 scale.
Visited by OS (R D) 12 October 1971.

Situated about 135m SSW of the standing stones (NM80SW 22), there is a severely denuded cairn measuring about 25m in diameter and 1.3m in height; before excavation in 1930 it is reported to have been some 2.5m high and to have been already heavily robbed. Craw discovered a cist about 4.3m SSE of the centre; it was aligned NW and SE and was covered by a large slab (1.85m by 1.37m and 0.2m thick). The cist measured 1.2m by 0.6m and 0.45m in depth and contained a Food Vessel, charcoal and ochre; it had been carefully paved with water-worn pebbles. Further charcoal and a piece of flint were found outside the cist, and another flint was discovered in the S part of the cairn. The Food Vessel is now in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Queen Street, Edinburgh. An arc of twenty boulders, possibly the kerb of an earlier cairn or a constructional feature within the mound, was found at the base of the cairn.
Visited June 1982
RCAHMS 1988

Campbell and Sandeman, M and M (1964) 'Mid Argyll: an archaeological survey', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol.95
Page(s): 12, No. 70; 114, No. 16

Craw, J H (1931a) 'Further excavations of cairns at Poltalloch, Argyll', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol.65
Page(s): 275-8 plan, illusts

RCAHMS (1988a) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 6: Mid-Argyll and Cowal, prehistoric and early historic monuments, Edinburgh
Page(s): 56-7, No. 35(2) Held at RCAHMS A.1.1.INV/24