Kintraw
Kilmartin, Argyll
Standing Stone; Cairn Canmore
Also known as The Danish King's Grave

Kintraw is a couple of miles north of Kilmartin, where the road heads down towards Loch Craignish.

In a field by the road stands a thirteen-foot tall monolith with three cairns around it.

Local folklore says that the stone was erected to mark the burial place of a Norse prince and is known as The Danish King's Grave. The large cairn also goes by that name.

The monolith fell during the winter of 1978/79. It was re-errected and set in a concrete plinth, but has been twisted from its original alignment.

The large cairn was excavated in 1959-60 and then rebuilt. A single burial was found in a cist only a short distance within the kerb. An eight-foot monolith was found lying within the cairn, and there was a gap in the centre where a wooden post had stood and later disintegrated. Six ornamented jet beads, a bronze buckle and shells and animal teeth were found amongst the stones, but there is no particular reason to believe that these were contemporary with the contstruction of the cairn.

The remains of two other cairns are close by.

Images ©1999 Martin McCarthy, Theasis Photography

Nearby Sites

1km Salachary Stone Row Standing Stones
2km Ormaig Rock Carvings Cup and Ring Marks
4km Carnassarie Cairn Cairn
4km Carnassarie Standing Stones Standing Stones
4km Creagantairbh Beag Monolith Standing Stone
4km Glennan Standing Stone
6km Kilmartin Church And Graveyard Mediaeval Grave Slabs; Early Christian Crosses; Carved Slabs; Church
7km Nether Largie Stone Setting Stone Setting
7km Temple Wood Stone Circle
8km Ballymeanoch Cairn Kerb Cairn
8km Ballymeanoch Henge Henge; Cist
8km Ballymeanoch Holed Stone Standing Stone (broken, fallen and moved)
8km Ballymeanoch Stone Rows Stone Rows
8km Dunchraigaig Cairn Chambered Cairn
10km Torbhlaran Standing Stone
11km Dunadd Fort; Rock Carving
11km Kilmichael Glassary Decorated Rock Sheet Cup and Ring Marks
13km Cairnbaan Cup and Ring Marks
14km Achnabreck Carved Rocksheet Cup And Ring
15km Kilmory Oib Village Deserted Mediæval Village
15km Stane Alane Standing Stone
19km Castle Lachlan Castle
(NB: All distances are as-the-crow-flies. Lochs, mountains and beautiful winding roads will make it further. Sometimes much further.)