Port Charlotte

Nearest town:
Campbeltown (60km E)
OS reference:
NR248576
OS sheet:
60
Latitude:
55° 43' 59.89 N
Longitude:
6° 23' 3.83 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Port Charlotte (Chambered Tomb) by drewbhoy

That hill will be of interest next time, looking south.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Oct 8, 2018

Articles

Port Charlotte

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Feb 8, 2019

From Cultoon we headed south to the beautiful village of Portnahaven before heading north east towards Port Charlotte. Just the the south of the village pull in the campsite. Whoever constructed the football pitch, campsite and restaurant should congratulated on doing a cracking job. Good to see some children taking interest in the site when we arrived, as soon as I started looking and taking photographs they asked questions, Aberdeenshire kids from Insch, very intelligent :-)

The site does seem to be looked after slightly better than in the past and it was litter free.

Canmore Description

This chambered cairn is situated in a field at the edge of the raised beach 750m SW of Port Charlotte; the chamber and much of the cairn were excavated between 1976 and 1979, and the following account makes use of the interim report and further information supplied by the excavators (Peirpoint and Harrington 1978). The cairn, which is aligned NNE and SSW, measures 22m in breadth and is now about the same length, but the SSW end has been destroyed, and it would originally have been much longer. The chamber, at the NNE end, is entered from the centre of a concave facade of which only the stump of one stone and a fallen second stone now remain. Immediately in front of the entrance there was a pit, some 0.6m deep, from the bottom of which charcoal provided a radiocarbon date of ad 90+- (HAR-2405), but this may have been a result of contamination. The large slab in front of the entrance has been erected as if to form a portal stone. The sill-stone, only part of which is shown on plan (RCAHMS plan A), is 0.8m long, 0.23m thick and 1.16m high, and was held in position by two jamb-stones; the septal stone is 0.9m long, 0.96m high and 0.15m thick. The second compartment (1.5m long and 1.3m broad) comprises two massive side-slabs up to 0.9m high supported from behind by large slabs, which can be seen protruding through the cairn material. The third compartment has been destroyed, and the fourth is now represented only by the W side-slab. The missing slabs appear to have been removed for use as culvert-covers in the last century, but the slots from which they had been removed were discovered in the course of excavation.

Now I liked this site, tremendous views to Kintra and Bowmore as well as the nearby hills, which hopefully will see my feet reasonably soon.

Visited 1/8/2018.

Port Charlotte

C
CARL Jul 31, 2016

Visited 30.7.16

Directions:
Head south out of Port Charlotte along the A847. You will shortly come to the Kilchoman Community Park / camp site on your left. There is a large car park. This ruined tomb can be seen in rough grass between two football pitches, surrounded by tents.

Although there is an information board giving details about the tomb I would imagine that most of the campers were oblivious to this ancient tomb in their midst. As Merrick correctly states, this site has the feel of being unloved, uncared for and largely forgotten. At least the unkempt long grass affords some protection? Also of course, at least it is still with us!

Although it is worth viewing when in the area, the tomb at Cragabus is a much better visiting experience.

Port Charlotte

Merrick
Merrick Nov 24, 2005

This sad ruin stands just south of Port Charlotte/ Port Sgiobha.

Tucked in the long grass at the corner of the football field of Kilchoman Community Park, the chamber walls have nine stones standing plus one chamber divider.

There’s a lot of pebbles and other stones around in a haphazard rubbish-tip style. It’s impossible for me to tell which way round it stood. The chamber’s roughly north-south, and I’d guess the entrance was at the north from the hints of mound at the south. But maybe that’s just cos the rest of the land’s been cleared and levelled for the playing fields.

This is surely the only place where you can kick a ball wide of the goal and have it land in a 5,000 year old death monument. We certainly didn’t have that in the park where I grew up.

I’ve seen places in worse condition, but something about this place depresses me beyond its state of preservation. It’s the way it seems tipped out of a dumper truck as mess at the edge of a municipal sports ground. The (surely expensive) marbled info board is generic and says nothing about this site. It shows an intact cairn and says it’s a Neolithic monument but nothing about its use. I cleared assorted plastic and broken glass from the chamber floor.

To add to the uneasy vibe, two grey navy ships came up Loch Indaal as we approached, and they’re now passing back out between me and Laggan Point. The view across the water to Beinn Bhan and the mountains of the east, round to The Strand and The Oa are rich and impressive, somehow simultaneously imposing and soothing, but this site is a sorry place indeed.

Visited 16 June 05

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