Carn Ban

Nearest town:
Campbeltown (33km SSE)
OS reference:
NR6681453822
OS sheet:
62
Latitude:
55° 43' 17.76 N
Longitude:
5° 42' 48.8 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Carn Ban (Cairn(s)) by drewbhoy

A tad overgrown, you can just about spy another cist to the left.

Image credit: drew/AMJ
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Aug 13, 2025

Articles

Carn Ban

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Jun 9, 2026

After a good look at some mounds near the Kinerach cist I followed the grassy track heading north east towards the much disturbed but reasonably well known Carn Ban.

Sadly towards the end of the 18th century much of the cairn material was removed to make nearby walls, houses and possibly some met a stone grinder which enabled roads to be constructed.

What remains is a cairn nearly 18m wide, I spied at least 5 cists and there could well be more – difficult to locate because of all of the ferns, bracken, gorse – basically the ‘jabby stuff’. It is a pity, a good clean-up might reveal a lot more.

Photos from the ‘Antiquities Of Gigha’ show the much robbed site, some cists and a stone that once stood – it maybe still does.

Could be impressive!

Visited 04/08/2025.

Folklore

Carn Ban
Cairn(s)
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Aug 18, 2025

Amongst the oldest relics of man in Gigha is Carn Ban (the White Cairn) of the Late Bronze Age. It is of circular type, with no passage, and the cists are closed, with no divisions. The site is on a bench or shelf 30 feet above sea level, a few yards back from the beach, in a sea of heather and bracken, half a mile south south of Port Righ (King’s Port). In 1792, the cairn was denuded of almost all its stone by dykebuilders, who were unaware of its purpose until they laid bare the internal chambers.. They told how when they opened these they were greeted by an intolerable stench, which obliged them to drink spirits and keep on the windward side; and when they omitted these precautions they had violent headaches.

The Magic of Gigha – Freddie Gillies

Folklore

Carn Ban
Cairn(s)
drewbhoy
drewbhoy May 28, 2025

Around 4000 years ago, eight or more people were buried in Càrn Ban. One was a woman, laid on one side with her legs curled up to fit into the small stone chamber. White quartz rocks and pottery urns were buried with her, perhaps because they were believed to be important in the afterlife. In 1792, four of these chambers or cists were uncovered by local people as they took the stone away to build dykes, but when they opened them, they were hit with an intolerable stench that gave them violent headaches.

From ‘Visit Gigha‘

Sites within 20km of Carn Ban