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MHG34237 - Cairns and mounds - Boblainy Wood

Summary

Cairns and mounds in Boblainy Wood

Type and Period (2)

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Full Description

The Inverness Field Club, led by Donald Coghill, surveyed a number of sites in the Aird area between 1987 and 1989. Boblainy Wood.
In the fir wood there appear to be two adjacent damaged cairns about 8 yards in diameter, above an area of scattered smaller cairns or mounds, some of which are of indefinite shape. A short distance away in a northerly direction there are traces of a circular enclosure 18 yards in diameter with an entrance to the south. Also in this area there are faint traces of a dyke or rampart running approximately south to north for perhaps 32 yards. To the south of the 2 cairns and at the S.E. boundary of the wood, there now starts the remains of a substantial rampart or rough walling running approx. S.W. for about 265 yards, the last 35 yards taking a curve towards the south. This continues in a S.E. direction and ends near, or disappears into, a thick wood beyond a forestry fence. On the other side of a forestry track, which is close to the aforementioned curve, a similar rampart runs in a W.S.W. direction and eventually appears to have been later incorporated in an internal estate boundary before disappearing in a thick fir wood at the top, and beyond a forestry fence. Down the slope from this linear feature to the north and west there is a large area of dozens of scattered prominent circular mounds or cairns.
Down below the aforementioned curve, straight, slender and much less substantial wall footings leave the rampart and run S.W., crossing the same rampart 30 yards further up, and forming a distinct D-shaped enclosure. This continues in the same S.W direction for approx. 300 yards. After 100 yards, 5 yards of this dyke forms the N.W. side of a rectangular enclosure 5 yards x 4 yards which appears to be open on the S.E. side. In this immediate area to the south there are three other square or rectangular enclosures, 8 yards x 8 yards, 4 yards x 4 yards and 8 yards x 5 yards, plus a mound close to the dyke at its S .E. side. About 40 yards up from the 5 x 4 enclosure, a substantial cross rampart runs out at right angles to the N.W. for about 44 yards. At the other S.E. side of the dyke there is a gap of 10 yards and then it continues S.E. for 120 yards where it disappears into a thick larch wood on the other side of a forestry fence. After about another 75 yards along the dyke and to the S.W., a further substantial rampart runs at right angles to the S.E. for about 100 yards and ends near the thick larch wood. This continues on the other side of the dyke and to the N.W. for 75 yards and ends at a cairn. After another 95 yards the slender dyke turns at right angles to the S.E. and ends after 75 yards. Further up there are later dyke footings running S.E. to N.W. ending at a cairn, one of a few prominent cairns in this immediate area of which one is 9 yards in diameter and about 4 ft 6' high.
At OS 485385 in the field on the other side of the forestry fence there is an irregular rectangular turf and boulder enclosure 54 x 16 yards and 60 x 21 yards. The section with the boulder walling, with a shorter length of similar walling, roughly parallel adjacent to its exterior S.E. side, appears to have had the walling added to with small clearance stones. Running down the slope in the enclosure are half a-dozen lazybeds. <1>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 4839 3850 (200m by 200m)
Map sheet	NH43NE
Civil Parish	KILTARLITY AND CONVINTH
Geographical Area	INVERNESS

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