RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 12 AT HY29601339 was in Petrie’s time an elliptical barrow 112’ NE-SW, 66’ across and 22 ft high. Now it is a 38x26m cairn with a maximum height of 5.7m. Traces of horns at the S and E recently led to its re-assessment as a long cairn like Staneyhill across the loch, but yesterday Nick Card opined the size made it a prime candidate for a Maes Howe type tomb rather – so what about those horns now ?
An 1853 excavation at the north end proved abortive (and was subsequently grassed over), though there is an unsupported account of a burial having been found here this would have come from the pre-1851 dig as Petrie mentions none from Farrar’s “considerable trench towards the north end [the earlier excavation was described in 1851 as being from the opposite side to a west climb onto the hill, but if this is the southern end it could be the reason for the putative horns]..
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Nick Card believes that because the test pit driven through to the bottom came up with nothing that this may be a similar kind of site to Silbury Hill [note spring too]