17/05/2019 – Did my knee in a bit a few weeks back and it’s still sore. Our trip to this patch was mainly for walking, a few ups and a few downs. Thinking I didn’t want to chance my knee with hills every day, I turned to trusty Canmore for a bit of inspiration. Looking at the map I noticed two chambered cairns marked at Cromalt I’d never seen before. I thought that will do nicely for a day trip out. They are a little bit in the middle of nowhere nowadays. After a bit of umming about the best route to them we decided to start at Knockan. There is good parking in the layby on the A895 (NC 2119 1058). There’s a decent track, marked on the OS map, heading SE that took us about half the way. After that it was a bit of bashing over rough ground, trying to head in a straight-ish line to the first cairn at NC2393208131. After a good look at the cairn (very good with nice stones of the chamber still in place) we headed east to this cairn at NC2500907977.
No access problems but I think I’ll mention the going underfoot. There hadn't been much rain round here for ages so the ground was very dry and that made the walk easy going really. If it had been raining for a week before we came I think it would be a completely different kettle of fish. Very soggy and tough going would be my guess. Also a few streams to cross.
The cairn itself is very nice. Not in that bad a condition and a few big stones showing. Location is a little different to a lot of the chambered cairns round here. Very open area. It did remind me a little of Loch Ailsh chambered cairn. Same kind of ditch round this one which may be natural due to the rate of peat build up surrounding the cairn compared to the stony cairn itself.
Very enjoyable day out. Two nice cairns and a bonus one near the start at NC21721041.
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Posted by thelonious
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