View from the SE. The stones of the outer of the two-compartment chamber can be seen behind the two portal stones – the one on the S being broken.
The outer compartment was thought by the excavator to be a later addition to the inner compartment which may have been (in his terminology) a protomegalith (see Cairnholy).
The N side stone of the outer compartment has been brought up to that of the inner compartment by use of levelling stones at ground level.
The capstone would have sat on the sidestones of the two compartments and access to the chamber would have been via the capstone as there would have been no way in via the portal stones.
The portal stones therefore have no structural significance but merely serve to denote a front-of-tomb area for ritual purposes. In some Clyde cairns, but not this one, the portal stones were developed into a facade to delineate a greater ritual area.
