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Latitude: 56.6122 / 56°36'43"N
Longitude: -6.2612 / 6°15'40"W
OS Eastings: 138639
OS Northings: 754827
OS Grid: NM386548
Mapcode National: GBR BCX7.QVD
Mapcode Global: WGYBY.S2NB
Entry Name: Rubha an Aird, cairns
Scheduled Date: 4 February 2003
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM10551
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Prehistoric ritual and funerary: cairn (type uncertain)
Location: Kilninian and Kilmore
County: Argyll and Bute
Electoral Ward: Oban South and the Isles
Traditional County: Argyllshire
The monument comprises two adjacent cairns of prehistoric date, visible as grass-covered mounds.
The cairns lie on the rock ridges of Rubha an Aird, at the NE tip of the Mornish peninsula, Mull. The southernmost cairn is about 9m in diameter and occupies the highest point of the southernmost of the three rock ridges of Rubha an Aird. Although it has been partly robbed, many of the kerb-stones remain, some now recumbent. At the centre, a single upright slab (1m wide by 0.8m high) may have formed one side of a cist grave.
The second cairn is situated some 80m NNE of the first cairn, on the central one of the three rock ridges of Rubha an Aird, though not on the highest point of that ridge. It measures about 10m in diameter. A number of the boulders that formed the kerb are still in situ in the W half, while at the centre, choked with debris, there is a cist measuring 1m by 0.55m and at least 0.4m deep. The capstone, which has been dislodged and broken, lies to the W of the cist.
Cairns of this type are funerary monuments dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age (third to second millennium BC), and may be expected to contain material relating to their mode of construction and use. The cist at the centre of the cairn is the remains of a slab-lined prehistoric grave.
The two areas proposed for scheduling include the remains described and areas around them within which related material is likely to survive. Both of the areas to be scheduled are circular in shape, and both of them are 30m in diameter, as marked in red on the accompanying map.
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 group value and its proximity to other monuments of potentially contemporary date.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as NM 35 SE 1 and 2.
Bibliography:
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), Edinburgh, 60, No. 56(2).
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
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