Description

The monument comprises a chambered cairn of prehistoric date. It is in the care of Scottish Ministers and is being re-scheduled to clarify the extent of the protected area.

The monument lies in arable farmland at around 120m OD. It comprises an oblong chambered cairn now measuring about 21m long by about 12m wide, although excavations in the 1940s demonstrated that the cairn had originally measured about 43m long and about 10m wide. At the E end of the cairn is a concave facade formed by eight upright pillars measuring between 2m and 3m in height, with the largest pillars at the centre of the facade. A slab-lined chamber measuring about 5.5m long and about 1m wide runs from the centre of the facade, between the two tallest upright pillars, into the body of the cairn. It is divided into an inner and outer chamber of roughly equal size by a transverse slab. Cairns of this type are burial monuments dating to the Neolithic.

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 irregular with maximum dimensions of 90m WSW-ENE and 58m WNW-ESE, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract.The top 30cm of the surface of the carpark within the scheduled area is excluded from the scheduling to enable minor repair and alterations to these areas without the need for scheduled monument consent. The area proposed for scheduling is identical to the area in care of Scottish Ministers.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

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Historic Environment Scotland Properties
Cairn Holy 2
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/cairn-holy-chambered-cairns
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Source: Historic Environment Scotland