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Chambered Cairn
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Pay at the interpretation centre at (South) Liddel/Liddle - vital talk there included in the price. On the way to the main objective the BA house at the burnt mound is a must see. As you come closer to the tomb (RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND48SE 1 at ND47048849) there is a low bank of earth and exposed stones in a field by the track that may be the reduced remains of a cairn or barrow. It is about a couple of metres across and at least several metres long (though you can see the end), starting by the field boundary and at right angles to the fence. From this direction the Tomb of The Eagles (the White-tailed Sea Eagle, or erne, called aigle) is only another scruffy mound.
Coming closer you see several smallish stones projecting from this side, the full glory appearing as you move around, with a resemblance to Wideford Hill Cairn. Best viewed from just ouside the fencing - look from the coastal (i.e. east) side and south is to your left and north at the right. A little of the area about the entrance has been eroded, from just to the left of the passage to way over to the right, so that we are missing the actual entrance (there is no evidence for it being a connecting passage anyway. From the the north side of the central cairn a 1.5m wide wall, standing to 0.3m, runs NNE from the outer wall-face for at least 12m that is known about (? 'death road'). This feature is later than the cairn but pre-dates the overlying rubble mound. On this side there is strong evidence of a hornwork curving to the NE, on the opposite side an apparently balancing earthwork is canny use of a purely natural formation.
In one place there is a short length of higher standing wall parallel to the NNE running wall behind its western face - part of said hornwork? Climbing on top of this side of the mound there is exposed a long dark stone (or possibly two) that looks to be an E/W course of wall, and looks to be shown on the plan in Davidson and Henshall. Others can describe the interior better than I. The south end side chamber has a display of skulls behind a screen. There is a light switch for this, but you have to keep it pressed in order to even attempt a photo. Davidson & Henshall mentions that quite aways from the cairn a 'storm beach', again to the NE, covers some kind of stone structures.
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Posted by wideford
15th April 2007ce
Edited 26th June 2007ce
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