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MHG3146 - Chambered Cairn - Vatten South

Summary

A large, probable Hebridean-type chambered cairn which has been heavily robbed.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

NG24SE 12 2984 4398.

(NG 2984 4398) Cairn (NR)
OS 6"map, (1969)

A large but greatly ruined, probably Hebridean type, chambered cairn, 11' in maximum height and 110' - 120' in diameter, of bare stones, except where turf covers the edges.
The interior has been so much robbed that a huge depression some 50' across has been left in the centre and the remaining cairn material has obviously been much disturbed. The cairn has had a kerb of stones set on their edges, similar to NG24SE 6. The largest, on the S, is 4'9" long, and others can be traced intermittently round the rest of the periphery. There seems to have been a chamber in the cairn, with its entrance on the SE, as on this side about 40' from the cairn edge, there is a massive horizontal stone which looks like a lintel set transversely to the SE-NW axis; and to the NW of this are a smaller flat stone and an upright stone. In spite of the removal of cairn material to a low level in the area where the chamber would be expected to lie, no more orthostats can be seen, but just SE of the south corner of the supposed lintel there just projects the top of an upright stone 2' long, aligned SSE-NNW.
A S Henshall 1972 <1>

A chambered cairn as described by Henshall.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (R L) 12 October 1971.

Site visited and photographed by Mr & Mrs M McGuire, 7/10/03. The Highland Archaeology Challenge. See assoc. docs. File and CD for Photographic Record.
J Aikten: 22/1/03.

Photographs of the cairn were forwarded to the HER by Paul Swan in August 2010. <2>

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NG 2983 4399 (39m by 48m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NG24SE
Geographical Area	SKYE AND LOCHALSH
Civil Parish	DUIRINISH

Finds (0)

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External Links (2)