Loved this.... don't be mis-led by the 'White Cairn' marked on the 1:50K OS map a considerable distance to the NW, near Bargrennan Burn. The White Cairn we want is much closer to Glen Trool village and marked simply as 'chambered cairn'... for once the megarak has an easier time than he anticipated! Doesn't happen very often....
As Sals says, a waymarked track, appropriately indicated by white-tipped posts - I detect a female's co-ordinated touch here - makes very pleasant progress towards what would otherwise be a pretty difficult to find chambered cairn, hidden within a forestry clearing. And what a fine chambered cairn it is, too, with double capstone, the inner sheared into two segments by (hopefully only) the progress of time, within a large, round cairn. The chamber itself is reached by a low passageway, open to the elements.
There are minor gripes, such as the prevalence of grafitti within the chamber, some old, some relatively new, together with a flooring of white gravel. But, as stated, these really are minor. What's more I'm joined by no-one, the aura here remaining just as a woodland clearing should be. A small information panel gives punters an indication of what lies before them. But, to be honest, the White Cairn speaks for itself this afternoon.
Note that the Cairnderry chambered cairn lies a few miles down the road and is worth a look... not to mention Glen Trool itself, a must for fans of The Bruce, I'd have thought?
This cairn is about 12 miles north of Newton Stewart, and a pleasant walk through forestry land from the village of Glentrool. Park on the road above the playing field and follow the white marked posts direct to it.
This is the tomb which, following its excavation in 1949, became the type-site for the Bargrennan style of chamber tombs.
There are around a dozen of them in SW Scotland and the distinguishing feature is a chamber which is structurally indistinct from the passage. This sets them apart from the more numerous Clyde tombs whose distribution overlaps that of Bargrennan tombs.
Bargrennan tombs can be set in round or long cairns.
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Posted by GLADMAN
Posted by sals
Posted by greywether
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