Auchenlaich Cairn Chambered Cairn View all content for Auchenlaich Cairn

16/02/02 I visited this site with no real idea of the scale of the place. Auchenlaich is the longest megalithic burial cairn in Britain. Today, Auchenlaich Cairn consists of a ridge of grassed over stones which stretches for over 350 metres in a perfectly straight line, from a field adjacent to the Auchenlaich camping site and well into another field to the north. A farm track cuts right across the middle of the cairn. Auchenlaich runs in a NNW to SSE direction and sits in the flat valley of the Keltie Water, less than a mile east of the town of Callander. The highlands rise from the central lowlands immediately to the north and west , with the mighty presence of Ben Ledi just a few miles to the west. There is one burial chamber opened in the south section of the monument and there are also small piles of what looks like recently excavated stones along the south section. It's hard to take in the sheer size of this place and almost as hard to get a good photo - the place is crying out to be photographed from the air. There must have been so many burials and possibly cremations here, that a walk along this 350 metres must have been a linear journey of legend, pain and joy of life - a life shared with the spirits.

Posted by winterjc 20th February 2002ce

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