South Yarrows south Chambered Cairn
a Summary
An early survey of the east end
Aerial view of the east end of the cairn, showing the modern structures on the right
This 5000 year old tomb was used for burying important members of the community. In 1865 two local archaeologists, Joseph Anderson and Robert Shearer, recovered human and animal bone, some of which were burnt, from the chambers. Later, a cist was built on the site, inside which a pot and jet-beaded necklace placed beside the deceased as an offering. Like many sites across Caithness the cairn had been used as an easy source of building stone before the 19th century excavations. Despite state protection, the monument continues to decay.
A bit more...
This cairn is thought to be from the Neolithic period, ie 5000 years old. Originally excavated by Joseph Anderson and colleague in 1865, it has been visited and recorded by a succession of Scotland's most significant archaeologists since then - Francis Tress-Barry, Joanna Close-Brooks, Audrey Henshall, Roger Mercer, etc. Confusingly, the main structures visible at the east end, nearest the Trail route, are modern additions, not seen by the earliest archaeologists.
Like many Neolithic long cairns, this cairn seems to have started as a Camster-type cairn. This name originates from one of the two cairns at Camster, a few miles south of Yarrows. The Camster Round Cairn consists of a long passageway to a chamber, the passage and chamber then being enclosed by a massive pile of stones. As the other Camster cairn - the Long Cairn - reveals, often these round cairns were joined together by covering with a mass of stones forming a long structure. Typically these had spreading arms, or "horns" forming an amphitheatre at each end.
The indefatigable Audrey Henshall surveyed all the cairns of Scotland in the 1960's and 1970's. She described South Yarrows South Cairn in her 1963 book (The Chambered Tombs of Scotland) as follows: The cairn measures 240ft in length and varies in width from 36 to 66ft and in height from 5 to 12ft. The E end has been altered by the construction of modern walling outside the entrance and by the rebuilding of the walls and roof of the passage and outer compartment of the chamber.
This cairn has a distinct 'head and tail' profile and a very short passage which indicate that it originated as a round, chambered cairn too small to effect the plan of the subsequent long cairn, which is probably relatively late in date.
A S Henshall 1972.
This is the southern of a pair of chambered cairns (YARROWS04 224) at South Yarrows, lying 160m SW of the farmsteading and 250m S of its neighbour to the N (ND34SW 6). The cairn stands on the crest of a broad, heather-grown ridge that slopes gently down from S to N and falls more steeply to the E and W. The cairn measures 58m in length from E to W by about 18.5m in breadth, increasing to 29m across the horns at its E end and about 18.4m across the horns at the W end. The cairn material rises up to 2m in height at the E end, where an axial burial-chamber is visible. The chamber is accessed by way of a passage that runs back into the body of the cairn from just N of the centre of the concave forecourt. This passage measures about 2m in length by 0.8m in width, and at its W end there is a pair of portal stones framing a narrow entrance 0.4m wide leading into an ante-chamber. The ante-chamber measures 1.6m in length by up to 1.8m in width, though the side-walls cannot now be seen due to modern dry-stone infilling. At the W end of the ante-chamber another pair of portal stones frame the entrance to the main chamber, which measures 3m in length by 1.8m in width. At the W end of the main chamber is a cell, which is still roofed with a large slab and measures 1.4m in length from N to S by 0.7m transversely. A large slab (YARROWS04 225), which measures at least 3m by 2m transversely and could have been a capping stone within this part of the cairn, lies 12m E of the NE horn of the cairn.
Situated roughly midway along the S side of the cairn are the remains of another roofed passage. It may have led to the wedge-shaped chamber found in 1900 by Tress Barry. This chamber was widest at its N end, where a large upright slab had been built into the rear wall, the southern two thirds was divided along its length by three close-set upright slabs supporting the capping stones. Today only part of a passage is visible. Partly roofed with slabs resting on walls of edge-set slabs and dry-stone walling, it measures 1.8m in length by 0.6m in width and 0.6m in height.
There are at least two other locations where the tops of large upright slabs in the body of the cairn suggest the possible presence of internal features. These are located at the W end and between the two recorded chambers, but at neither location was enough of the structure visible to allow a positive interpretation of the remains.
The visible remains of this cairn and the documentation that relates to the history of its 'exploration' strongly suggests that the E end of the cairn was originally a free-standing chambered round cairn with its chamber and passage aligned ESE and WNW. Later this was extended to the W to form a long cairn, but the axis of the latter is at least 12 degrees to the S of that of the chamber and passage.
What may be the remains of a small hut (YARROWS04 256) is situated on the top of a low rise 11m N of the W end of the cairn. It measures 3.5m in length from N to S by 2.5m transversely over a wall 0.5m in thickness and 0.2m in height. The wall is partly made up of small upright slabs.
Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 30 June 2004
RCAHMS aerial photo
