<< Our Photo Pages >> Nether Largie Mid - Cairn in Scotland in Argyll
Submitted by jeffrep on Thursday, 15 February 2001 Page Views: 7602
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Nether Largie MidCountry: Scotland County: Argyll Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Lochgilphead Nearest Village: Kilmartin
Map Ref: NR8303798309 Landranger Map Number: 55
Latitude: 56.128042N Longitude: 5.492614W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Uralsdaughter visited on 19th Aug 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4
Anne T visited on 17th Jul 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Nether Largie Mid-Cairn: This cairn is not quite as impressive as Nether Largie South, but we found it fascinating to look at. Reading Webb's "In The Footsteps of Kings" she says the cairn was originally placed on a slightly raised terrace, but its position has been exaggerated because the ground beyond the fence has been ploughed, and reduced in height over time." The course of the Kilmartin Burn has also been straightened; it once would have meandered around all these cairns in this 'linear cemetery'. By the time we'd reached this cairn, the stream of visitors had slackened off, and we had time to sit and admire this glorious glen.
Despite searching for some time, we didn't find the axehead carving or the cup mark in the southern cist, nor could we seen the cup marked rock 10m to the north west. I did take a number of photos inside the cist, including the inside of the capstone, as sometimes faint carvings show up better on the photos, but nothing was visible. We tried!
The notice boards on site read: “Nether Large Mid lies at the midpoint of Kilmartin Glen’s line of cairns. Its edge is marked by kerbstones. Two important people were buried here 4,000 years ago. In 1929, archaeologist James Hewat Craw found two empty stone graves or ‘cists’ underneath this Bronze Age cairn. The bodies they once contained had dissolved away in the acid soil. An axehead is faintly carved inside the southern grave. Concrete posts show the position of the northern one.”
“The line of cairns stretches for more than 2.5 miles (4km). Look up the glen to Nether Large North and Glebe. Look down to Nether Large South and Ri Cruin, surrounded by trees. A sixth cairn between here and Nether Largie South was destroyed in the 1880s. This was the burial place of the elite. Their power had probably been based on controlling the flow of metal from Ireland up the Great Glen to bronze-working centres in north-east Scotland.”
SandyG visited on 16th Apr 2015 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
SolarMegalith visited on 27th Apr 2013 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4
markj99 visited on 30th Apr 2010 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Nether Largie Mid Cairn is the least impressive of the group. It has been extensively robbed leaving a cist and large capstone exposed in the S Arc of the cairn.
macd visited on 10th Sep 2007 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3 First visit Sep 2007, second visit 2014.
Glorious Kilmartin Glen.
coin visited - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4
hidebasket visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
Catrinm jeffrep have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3 Ambience: 4.25 Access: 3.88
Situated between the Nether Largie North and South Cairns in the Linear Cemetery in Kilmartin Glen, Nether Largie Mid, which dates from the Early Bronze Age, was originally almost 10 feet high. Since many of its stones have been removed for building purposes over the centuries, it now is a little more than three feet high and almost 100 feet in diameter.
This cairn is recorded as Canmore ID 39493 which adds that before the 1920s, this cairn stood as much as 3 metres in height, which illustrates the amount of stone removed. The cairn is now an irregular platform of stones, and several of the kerbstones can be see in an arc on its southern side. The cairn today is protected by a railed fence. Excavation revealed two cists. A 1982 report in the Canmore records says that the most northern of these is indicated by low concrete posts; the other is still visible at the southern end of the cairn.
Canmore adds "About 9.5m NE of this (southern) cist, there is a slab measuring 0.95m by 0.63m and 0.21m in thickness, and bearing five cupmarks up to 50mm in diameter and 10mm in depth."
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