|
 Log in |
Register
|
|
|
Newmore Wood CairnCairn(s)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
0 discussions
Show map (inline Google Map)
|
|
|
Images (click to view fullsize) |
 Add an image |
|
Fieldnotes |
Add fieldnotes |
| Had a walk up to the cairn last weekend (first time in a few years). Surprised to see some disturbance around the remaining circumference. Material doesn’t appear to have been removed but its certainly been moved quite significantly and then replaced again. No sign of vehicles but significant effort would have been needed. |
Posted by strathspey22nd April 2019ce |
|
This Cairn does not seem to have an official name which is a shame as its been a very substantial monument and it still dominates its immediate surroundings. Access is easy - from the Inchindown Forestry Commission Car park on the Scotsburn road look North and there it is, about 200m away. It has been thoroughly robbed, but what remains gives a clear indication as to what once was. First, what remains? Well, virtually all of one quarter of the circumference on the SE side. The outer stonework is undisturbed and consists of small stone with a mossy covering. This is approx 5m in height from its base up to the top level of stonework - the base being on the downslope of a slight hill. There is a huge boulder (about 2m x 1m x 1m)lying on the top of one section - it looks entirely out of place and lord knows how it got there. The entire centre of the cairn has been robbed out and what remains is covered in ferns with no larger stones visible.. There are 2 things that strike me about this site. 1. This cairn is situated very close to the valley floor. Nearly all the local cairns are sited well upslope on hill and mountainsides. This is probably due to changing land use over the centuries - all lower lying cairns have been lost to agriculture ? 2.Its Height. It must have been enormous. What remains gives a good indication of scale. When you stand in the centre of the robbed out centre, the top of the remaining section is at least 1 -2m above headlevel, not forgetting the existing summit will be considerably lower now, than it was when it was built. Although incomplete, this is a good site to visit due to its accessibility. Theres also a cup and ring marked stone 20m from the car park! Visited 10th Dec 2009 |
Posted by strathspey 11th December 2009ce Edited 11th December 2009ce |
Folklore |
Add folklore |
Near this cairn and the cup-and-ring-marked rock is a stone called Clach Ceann a' Mheoir. I can't find a photo of it. But it gets named on the OS map so I think it must be quite sizeable. It's got its own folklore:In the parish of Rosskeen there is a large boulder-stone called Clach ceann nam meur, the "Stone of the Finger Ends," at the east of the Farm of Dalnacloich, "the field of the stone." Connected with this stone is a tradition which shows it as a horrible memorial of feudal times - that a laird of Achnacloich, when settling marches, asked a youth, whom he had taken to witness the settlement, whether he would remember that as the march-stone. On his replying that he would, the Laird commanded him to lay his hand flat upon the stone, and with a stroke of his sword cut off the tips of the lad's fingers, saying, "You will remember it now." And posterity still remembers it.This seems so unwarranted and unpleasant I can't help wondering whether the name comes from something else.. yes I'm just looking for a cupmarky connection. Sometimes stones are said to bear the fingermarks of some giant or devil. Wouldn't it be nice if there were some fingermarks on the stone... if you're passing you could look?! Quote from 'Names of Places in Easter Ross' by the Rev. William Taylor, in The Scottish Geographical Magazine, v2, 1886. http://www.archive.org/stream/scottishgeograph02scotuoft#page/16/ |
Posted by Rhiannon11th October 2011ce |
Top of page