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<< Our Photo Pages >> Dunchraigaig Cairn - Cairn in Scotland in Argyll

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 31 May 2021  Page Views: 13821

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Dunchraigaig Cairn Alternative Name: Duncraigaig
Country: Scotland County: Argyll Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Lochgilphead  Nearest Village: Kilmartin
Map Ref: NR8330796811  Landranger Map Number: 55
Latitude: 56.114731N  Longitude: 5.487062W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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Uralsdaughter visited on 19th Aug 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4

Anne T visited on 18th Jul 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Dunchcraigaig Cairn: Parking in the small car park opposite the cairn, we crossed (ran over between the cars doing at least 60mph) the busy road to have a look at yet another large, stony cairn (special in its own right, but so many of them around here!). Just as we drew into the car park, a black mini-bus with the name “Tour of the Tor”; we kept coming across this bus and its people a number of times for the next few days. They do ‘sacred tours’ of a number of areas, including Glastonbury and the Celtic Lands. I don’t know where they went, but they didn’t arrive at the cairn until after we’d started on towards the standing stones. On the way down to the standing stones/stone row at Ballymeanoch, I spotted a smaller cairn to its north eastern side, and another chamber, topped by a large lintel stone on its southern side (note: Canmore says so much material may have been moved from this side of the cairn, it may have been the primary burial). This was an impressive location, despite its proximity to the busy road.

SandyG visited on 15th Apr 2015 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5

coin visited on 1st Jan 2014 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Fantastic - a hare ran from the top of the mound on approach.

SolarMegalith visited on 28th Apr 2013 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5

custer visited on 13th Oct 2012 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Car park on opposite side of road, good access. Great site.

hidebasket visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5

snakefarmer rrmoser AngieLake have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.57 Ambience: 4 Access: 4.71

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by dodomad : Prehistoric carvings of red deer found in Scottish neolithic tomb. The carvings are thought to be 4,000 to 5,000 years old. Photo Credit: Historic Envoronment Scotland (Vote or comment on this photo)
Like the other Kilmartin cairns, Dunchraigaig is about 30m wide. But excavations in the 1800s showed it was quite an unusual monument. The cairn has three cists inside. The cist to the east contained only cremated bones. The central cist contained a full-length body on top of its cover slab, with cremated human bones inside and below this a layer of rough paving which revealed yet another body, in a crouched position.

This Bronze Age burial cairn could have been built in site of the earlier Neolithic monument. A significant amount of human remains were discovered inside the burial chamber in 19th century.

For more information see Canmore ID 39455, which describes the cairn as it is today, together with some observations on the excavations by Mapleton & Greenwell in 1864.

Note: Hamish Fenton finds prehistoric carvings of red deer found in Scottish neolithic tomb, more in the comments on our page
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Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by andy_h : Dunchraigaig Cairn, Kilmartin Valley, Argyll. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by h_fenton : Part of the rock art panel inside Dunchraigaig Cairn photographed using natural light. Towards the right of the image you can see the large stag with its antlers, other animals show better in the 3D models. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by custer : Great site to start a walk from. Another Kilmartin gem. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by h_fenton : My interpretation of rock art inside Dunchraigaig cairn, produced from one of many photogrammetry models. You can also see this model on Sketchfab and play with the lighting, however the model is optimised for quality rather than ease of viewing so is unlikely to be viewable on mobile devices. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/deer-rock-art-at-dunchraigaig-cairn-kilmartin-2b5396064e5d4c8194ae26... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by dodomad : The layout of the deer carvings found inside Dunchraigaig cairn in Kilmartin Glen. Credit: Historic Environment Scotland

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by SandyG : View from the east. (15th April 2015).

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by SandyG : View from the south. (15th April 2015).

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Bladup : Dunchraigaig Cairn.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by caradoc68 : NP 833 968, This damaged chambered cairn as severely kist's or cairns within, this picture is of the kist on top of this chambered cairn. This site is one of the easiest to get to on the glen.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Antonine : 2008

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Antonine

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Antonine

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Anne T : A quick look inside the chamber on the south side of the cairn.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Anne T : The cist on the south side of the cairn; Canmore says "though now on the south side of the cairn, a great deal of the cairn on that side has been removed, so very probably this cist which cannot satisfactorily be classified as a chamber was the primary burial."

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Anne T : Standing in the middle of the cairn, looking south west towards the gate leading to the nearby standing stones. I presume the larger stone is the cover of the second cist, in the centre of the cairn.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Anne T : The cairn, and another curious little mound of stones, as seen from the NE corner of the cairn enclosure. Reading the Canmore entry a little more closely, it would appear these may be the remains of the kerb.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Anne T : The Dunchraigaig Cairn, seen from the car park across the road.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by JLT : Dunchraigaig Cairn Information board with info about the artifacts found at this site

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by SandyG : View from north east. (15th April 2015).

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by SandyG : Cist in the centre of the mound. View from the south east. (15th April 2015).

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by SandyG : Large cist in the southern edge of the cairn. View from the south, (15th April 2015).

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Bladup : Dunchraigaig Cairn.

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by Bladup

Dunchraigaig Cairn
Dunchraigaig Cairn submitted by coin : The main chamber

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
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"Dunchraigaig Cairn" | Login/Create an Account | 9 News and Comments
  
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Hamish Fenton finds prehistoric carvings of red deer found in Scottish neolithic tomb by Andy B on Monday, 31 May 2021
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Amateur archaeologist exploring Dunchraigaig cairn found animal depictions by chance. Hamish is well known to us here as our favourite kite photographer.

Delicate prehistoric carvings of adult red deer, thought to be the oldest of their type in the UK, have been found in a tomb in one of Scotland’s most famous neolithic sites.

The carvings, which depict two male red deer with full-grown antlers and several thought to be young deer, were discovered by chance in Kilmartin Glen in Argyll, home to one of the UK’s richest accumulations of neolithic and bronze age sites.

Archaeologists estimate the carvings are between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, a period which spans the neolithic and early bronze age, and are the first in the UK located alongside prehistoric cup and ring markings found throughout Kilmartin Glen.

The deer were found by Hamish Fenton, an amateur archaeologist from Oxfordshire who was visiting the area, and who was exploring Dunchraigaig cairn, a bronze age burial mound, one evening.

After deciding to explore a burial cist on the side of the cairn, he slid inside with a torch. An archaeology graduate from Bournemouth university, Fenton spotted the delicate and unusual markings on the capstone, or cover, of the chamber.

“As I shone the torch around, I noticed a pattern on the underside of the roof slab which didn’t appear to be natural markings in the rock. I could see that I was looking at a deer stag upside down, and as I continued looking around, more animals appeared on the rock,” he said.

More at
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/31/prehistoric-carvings-of-red-deer-found-in-scottish-neolithic-tomb
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Dunchraigaig Cairn by Anne T on Friday, 03 August 2018
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In response to the question 'do you know where the finds from these cists are now?' I was also wondering this and have a partial answer. The Canmore entry says after the excavation in 1929, food vessels were found in each of two cists:

Bowl Food Vessel from the second cist is in the National Museum of Antiquities (now the National Museum of Scotland), Accession Number HPO 12 - see HPO 12, described as a "Ceramic bowl food vessel richly decorated in geometric patterns, from Duncraigaig, Kilmartin, Argyll, 2300 - 1700 BC."

Bowl Food Vessel from the third cist, now in NMS, Accession Number HPO 11 - see HPO 11; described as an Irish food vessel, "from Duncraigaig, Kilmartin, Argyll, 2200 - 1800 BC".

There is only basic information, no photos, on the NMS website. The last line on the Canmore entry says "the other finds have not survived", although other entries dated 1964 and 1981 say these were lost. As the original question asked, I wonder if anyone knows where they are?
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Re: Dunchraigaig by coldrum on Sunday, 04 April 2010
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