Sat 21stJuly
After
a wet night in a layby we woke to low clouds in the trees and decided not
to try to find the burial chamber a mile or so up in Achnabreck forest
without a decent map and instead headed back towards Kilmartin to visit
the other cairn that is open.
Dunchraigaig
Cairn
Burial Chamber
NR 853 968
There is a signed parking area for this site on the main road a couple of miles before Kilmartin. This visit was particularly frustrating because it could be a pleasant walk from here to visit the carved standing stones at Ballymeanoch, a henge and another burial chamber not far to the south and the Baluachraig carved stones to the north. Footpaths link all these sites, but as they go through fields, they were closed.
It is constructed from water worn boulders. Only three kerb stones remain in the north and when it was excavated in 1864 three cists were found. One was just north of the centre, a second lay to the east but is covered now and the third, believed to be the primary burial and the most impressive feature of the site, lies in the southeast of the cairn. It is covered by a massive capstone, 3.8 metres long, and contained the remains of 8 to 10 people, tools and pottery fragments.
Email webmaster