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Latitude: 58.351 / 58°21'3"N
Longitude: -3.2229 / 3°13'22"W
OS Eastings: 328521
OS Northings: 940925
OS Grid: ND285409
Mapcode National: GBR L6DN.JB2
Mapcode Global: WH6DZ.GCHF
Entry Name: Toftgun,cairn and shieling 1950m SSE of
Scheduled Date: 8 November 1993
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM5799
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Prehistoric ritual and funerary: cairn (type uncertain); Secular: shieling
Location: Latheron
County: Highland
Electoral Ward: Wick and East Caithness
Traditional County: Caithness
This monument is a probable prehistoric cairn and a post medieval shieling in a forestry clearing on sloping ground.
The cairn consists of a large, grass-grown, mound of stone about 21m in diameter and 1.5m in maximum height. A single embedded stone protruding from the top of the cairn may indicate the existence of a chamber. There is a quantity of loose stone on the surface of the mound and the foundations of a small dry-stone building, a shieling, immediately to the SE of the mound.
The area to be scheduled measures 45m E-W by 45m N-S, to include the probable cairn, the shieling and an area around in which traces of activities associated with their construction and use may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument is of national importance for its potential contribution to an understanding of prehistoric ritual belief and burial practices, and for the information it may contain concerning seasonal use of upland pasture.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as ND24SE 8.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
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