Details |
Oval mound, with a U-shaped setting of stones, 2.5m by 2.2m, at its centre. This setting has seven upright slabs and is open to the southwest. The setting seems to extend round to the south, suggesting possibly a facade in the middle of which the open setting might lie. It is likely that the mound and setting are ceremonial and/or funerary structures of prehistoric date. Three trenches were opened by Alba Archaeology Ltd over the scheduled mound to assess rabbit damage and attempt to characterise the monument. The monument was found to be irregular in shape, consisting of a low mound of rounded and sub-rounded stones in a peaty soil matrix, probably deriving from material excavated to create the chamber space and enhanced with local surface scraping. The lack of burnt stones in the mound and the lack of signs of burning within or near the chamber indicate that the monument is neither burnt mound or kiln. Rabbits have disturbed most of the upper material within, and much of the material around the chamber. The trenches were not fully excavated. The northeast-southwest chamber, measuring 2.6m x 2.3m, consists for the most part of large edged stones. On the southwest side the edged stones are replaced by a low rough wall. The northwest-southeast aligned mound measures circa 11m x 8m.
|