This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.
We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?
If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.
Latitude: 56.5917 / 56°35'30"N
Longitude: -5.7523 / 5°45'8"W
OS Eastings: 169724
OS Northings: 750724
OS Grid: NM697507
Mapcode National: GBR DC59.9Z1
Mapcode Global: WH0FG.ML12
Entry Name: Acharn, cairn 480m NW of
Scheduled Date: 17 January 2001
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM7791
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Prehistoric ritual and funerary: cairn (type uncertain)
Location: Morvern
County: Highland
Electoral Ward: Fort William and Ardnamurchan
Traditional County: Argyllshire
The monument comprises a cairn of prehistoric date. The monument lies on a small terrace above the flood-plain at the foot of Loch Arienas, at around 20m OD. It comprises a cairn measuring approximately 11m in diameter and about 0.5m high. Two cists are exposed in the cairn, one to the S of the centre of the cairn, and the other in the NE quadrant.
The first measures about 1.4m by 0.7m, and is some 0.8m in depth. The second cist measures about 0.9m by 0.7m, and has a depth of about 0.6m, with the SE end-slab standing to a height of about 1m.
Cairns of this type are funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age. Although partly excavated, this example is likely to contain material relating to its mode of construction and use, and to contemporary environmental and land use conditions. Cists are graves lined with large stone slabs.
The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to be found. It is a circle 40m in diameter, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument is of national importance because of its potential to contribute to an understanding of prehistoric funerary and ritual practices. Its importance is increased by its proximity to other monuments of potentially contemporary date.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as NM 65 SE 4.
References:
Gregory, D (1857) 'Notes regarding various remains of antiquity, both of the earlier and middle ages, observed during a recent visit to the Hebrides', Archaeol Scot, Vol. 4, 363.
PSAS (1977) 'Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, Vol. 106, 18-19.
RCAHMS (1980) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona), 49-50, nos. 7 (2), Edinburgh.
Thornber, I. (1974) 'Acharn, cairn, flint/scraper, cairn, cairns', Discovery Excav Scot, 19.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Other nearby scheduled monuments