Ancient Scotland - Corrimony

Corrimony

Drumnadrochit, Highland

Clava Cairn; Stone Circle

Corrimony is a very impressive Clava-style cairn. And unusual in that the passage entrance is still intact.

The definitive Clava cairns are those at Balnuaran of Clava.

As is common with this style, the cairn has a large circular chamber with a passageway pointing to the position of the moonset at the southern minor standstill of the moon. Around the cairn is a circle of standing stones.

The circle has been much disturbed, so it is not clear how many stones were originally in the circle. There are currently 12 stones standing. One of the stones on the northwest of the circle has a number of cup marks on the external face.

Lying on the body of the cairn is a large slab that is heavily decorated with cup marks. It is generally supposed that this formed a capstone to the central chamber when the cairn was intact, but there is also a reasonable theory that this may have been another stone that stood in the circle at one time.

The cairn was excavated in 1952 and traces of a crouched burial - disolved by the acidic ground water to just leave a stain of the bones - were found beneath the intact floor of the cairn.

1/27 Looking north. The portal stones of the entrance passageway are immediately behind the standing stone in the foreground.

2/27 Looking northeast towards the entrance.

3/27 Another view to the northeast.

4/27 Looking northeast along the passageway into the chamber.

5/27 The western arc of the circle.

6/27 The northwestern arc of the circle. The second standing stone from the left is cup-marked on its external face.

The southwestern arc of the circle. The triple stone in the foreground is a late addition, possibly using lintel stones from the cairn or actual standing stones from the original circle.

7/27 The southwestern arc of the circle. The triple stone in the foreground is a late addition, possibly using lintel stones from the cairn or actual standing stones from the original circle.