26/06/2022 – Caen Burn West long cairn
Images
26/06/2022 – Caen Burn South long cairn
26/06/2022 – Caen Burn North long cairn
Eastern long cairn, with the northern visible below centre left. To say the Strath of Kildonan is up there with the likes of Kilmartin is perhaps to be far too reticent.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The eastern long cairn...
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802]....
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802] from high ground to approx west.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802]
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776] from head on.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776] viewed from approx SW across what appears to be a Bronze Age round cairn....
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
The very well preserved Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776] from approx NE.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776]: parting shot.... one of the finest long cairns I’ve seen this side of Kinbrace Hill. Which is just up the road.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn East Long Cairn [ND01481815]: looking approx south...
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn East Long Cairn [ND01481815]: looking approx north. The tripod spirit level reckoned this image was on the straight and level.... not sure myself, but there you are.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn East Long Cairn [ND01481815]: the rucksack (centre right) gives an indication of scale.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn East Long Cairn [ND01481815]:
Looking west(ish).
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn East Long Cairn [ND01481815]
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802]: classic long cairn positionning, looking north along the Caen Burn.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802]: highlighting the monument’s siting above the Caen Burn.... looking south.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802]
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802]: the eastern monument can be discerned upper centre of image.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn North Long Cairn [ND01251802] – not in the same league as its neighbour to the south.... but the situation overlooking the Caen Burn is, in my opinion, excellent.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776]
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776]....... note the round cairn located just above the tail, upper right.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776]: looking west across (presumably) the head of the long cairn.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776]: looking east(ish).
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn South Long Cairn [ND01231776]: I honestly thought the chances of stumbling across a scene such as this – after over more than a decade actively engaged in this business – were more-or-less nil. The long cairn is pretty much intact, a deep covering of moss suggestive of recent woodland?
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn West Long Cairn (ND00781783). Note the excellent position overlooking the River Helmsdale.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn West Long Cairn (ND00781783):
Internal detail toward the west.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn West Long Cairn (ND00781783): looking east......
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn West Long Cairn (ND00781783): Looking west across what is but a shell of the former monument. But what a long cairn this must once have been!
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn West Long Cairn (ND00781783)
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Caen Burn West Long Cairn (ND00781783): as the name implies, this is the most westerly of the quartet of long cairns in the vicinity of Caen Burn. It must have been massive in its day..... but is now very, very robbed.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Articles
26/06/2022 – It was sunny and we had walked a bit the day before so decided to take it slow today and give the legs a rest. We strolled up the Strath from where we were staying in Helmsdale to have a look at the long cairns round Caen Burn.
First to Caen Burn North, the only one I remembered visiting back in 2010. It’s a good one with a fine view across the Caen Burn. Track cuts across its east end but I liked its position above a curved embankment in the burn. Next Caen Burn South, it’s the one to see if you only have a short time there. A fantastic long cairn still in good condition. It’s worth a little climb up the hill behind to look down on this. Just to get a feel for its place in the landscape. We then made the short walk to Caen Burn West. This one is pretty ruined but I still liked it. We sat down on the slope above and had our sandwiches. It was a lovely sunny day and a good place to while away a few hours. It was hard to leave and make the hour walk back to Helmsdale.
Great long cairns, this site and the whole of the Strath of Kildonan are a must visit.
Although there is nothing here – where the Caen Burn flows down from the rolling hills to subsume itself within the voluminous River Helmsdale’s procession to the sea – in the same jaw-dropping league as the Kinbrace Hill monuments, this quartet of differing long cairns (count ‘em) nevertheless accord my final day exploring the wondrous environs of Strath of Kildonan a fitting climax. Indeed, the view of the more-or-less intact southern monument from high ground to the north-west is way beyond all expectations. And to be fair I can imagine an awful lot... as Han Solo once said in that somewhat obscure film.
My arrival is significantly delayed, the small matter of checking out preceding cairns at Carn Liath, Torrish Burn, Kilphedir and Salscraggie, in linear progression from the west, ensuring it is late afternoon before I finally park opposite an islet within the aforementioned River Helmsdale, a short distance prior to where the water course veers sharply to the south. The first of the long cairns (the western at ND00781783) lies upon a terrace to the immediate north. Sadly this is very much a case of what might have been.... or rather what once was, the monument clearly having been used as a quarry for building stone with nothing, save a trace outline of stone, defining what must have been a truly massive monument. Audrey Henshall [1963] has it at about “135 feet long, 27 feet broad at the W end widening to 50 feet in the E...oriented ESE-WNW”. Still the positioning, overlooking the river, is excellent.
I head approx north-east following a rough path across the flank of the hill, pausing to gawp at the spectacle of the superb southern long cairn lying below. I decide to leave what would appear to be the best to last and carry on to overlook the Caen Burn itself, the northern cairn (ND01251802) clearly visible above its western bank. Although disturbed, there remains a significant volume of curiously reddish/orange stone in situ, albeit with no discernible chamber visible to these eyes. According to Audrey “It lies ENE and WSW and measures about 100ft in length, some 35ft in breadth at the E end and 27ft at the W.” In my opinion the view looking north along the Caen Burn into the hills is excellent – there are apparently numerous hut circles and a souterrain up there – whilst the eastern long cairn can be seen to the north-east upon the lower, near flank of Caen Hill rising above the burn. Guess I’ll have to haul my aching body up there, then? Afraid so. Let’s call it a labour of love.
The Caen Burn is easily forded – or at least was at the time of my visit in late May – whereupon a (thankfully) short climb alongside a dry stone wall brings me to an unlocked gate accessing the long cairn at ND01481815. Like its lower neighbour, the monument hasn’t survived into our age unscathed. Nevertheless it remains a substantial stone pile “oriented NE-SW measuring about 166 feet in length and 25 feet broad at the SW end, widening to about 26 feet in the NE”. Speaking of orientation, both the northern and southern long cairns are visible from here, the angles of attack of the surrounding hills suggestive of riding upon a billowing green seascape. Or at least that might be the case if not for the luxuriant carpet of blue bells.
So... finally... I descend for an audience with the southern long cairn at ND01231776. As mentioned the monument appears almost intact and “orientated E-W appears to be 168ft long, 27ft wide at the W end and 46ft at the E.” The profile is not uniform, the cairn rising gradually from the west to “a height of 7ft” at the eastern extremity. Here some large displaced stones suggest the presence/former presence of a chamber. Well, Audrey Henshall certainly thought so way back in 1963. Hey, to think that was before I was born? A true pioneer lady. The cairn is covered in a thick mantle of moss, this a little puzzling since there is no indication of recent forestry here? Whatever, the happy effect only serves to heighten the sense of a location being somehow frozen in time. Someone call Stephen Hawking. He’ll know what’s what. Top man. Sadly my watch refuses to co-operate with my ‘theory of everything’ (in retrospect perhaps ‘everything’ was a little too ambitious) and I have to move on to once again find somewhere to crash out for the night. But not before determining that a nearby ‘hump’ is actually a Bronze Age round cairn. What a place......
Topics
Sites within 20km of Caen Burn, Strath of Kildonan
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Salscraggie Cairn
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Carn Laggie
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Kilphedir
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Kilphedir
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Eldrable
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Torrish Burn
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Green Table
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Torrish Burn
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Strath of Kildonan
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Ousdale Burn
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Gailiable
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Balvalaich
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Clach Mhic Mhios, Glen Loth
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Kilearnan Hill
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Ben Uarie
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Carn Bran
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Glen Loth
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Langwell
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Craig Halligarry
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Kilearnan
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Allt Preas Bhealaich
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Borgue Langwell
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Lothbeg Bridge
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Carn Liath, Strath of Kildonan
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Clach Na H-Uaighe
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The Craggan
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Suisgill Lodge
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Ach An Fhionnfhuraidh
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Kintradwell
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Learable Hill
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Learable Hill
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Learable Hill
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Carn Nam Buth
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Cos Ceumach
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Upper Borgue
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Upper Borgue
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Suisgill
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Kinbrace Burn
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Kinbrace Hill
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Balantrath
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Loedebest Wood
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Loedebest West
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Dunbeath Broch
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Dunbrae
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Carn Liath
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Loedebest
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Feranach
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Cnoc Na Maranaich
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Creag Nan Caorach, Kinbrace
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Cnoc Na Maranaich
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Cnoc Na Maranaich
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