Auchnaha

Nearest town:
Lochgilphead (10km W)
OS reference:
NR933818
OS sheet:
55
Latitude:
55° 59' 4.1 N
Longitude:
5° 18' 50.02 W
Added to TMA by

Sites within Auchnaha

​

​ •

location_on photo ondemand_video forum description link ​

Images

Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

The vandalised.... or if you prefer, ‘christianised’.... stone is to right.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 7, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

The ‘front’, showing the still impressive facade.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 7, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

From the flank, showing prominent facade stone and chamber with slipped capstone, to left.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 7, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

A fallen facade stone, with chamber visible to the right...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 7, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

The facade... with THAT fallen tree....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 7, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking across the main, outer chamber, towards the forest clearing. Somewhat overgrown, then?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 7, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by postman

The fallen trees are a recent intrusion they used to stand tall and proud some metres to the west but now lie haphazardly across half the stones.
This is my 3000th posting. Yaaay !!

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 26, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by postman

The small standing stone that is only twenty yards from the chambers, and my car on the road.
I’m zooming its not that close.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 26, 2010
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by greywether

General view from the SW showing chamber, facade and capstone.

The NE-facing cairn was said, in 1794, to be 120 ft long (37m). It is currently only visible for about 20m although there is a stone well to the SW which may mark the original end.

greywether
greywether Apr 5, 2004
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by greywether

The chamber.

The likely backstone can be seen making it 8.4m long and roughly 1m wide.

It has three compartments.

greywether
greywether Apr 5, 2004
Image of Auchnaha (Chambered Cairn) by greywether

The NW side of the chamber and the slipped capstone.

The stone on the right is 1.6m high.

greywether
greywether Apr 5, 2004

Articles

Auchnaha

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 8, 2010

Alas! Poor Auchnaha may well have been ‘christianised’ for our sins, or whatever, but the pious act of vandalism didn’t exactly do it any favours in the preservation stakes, did it? Survive for millennia upon your hilltop and then have a great big ruddy tree fall on you once you’ve been suitably ‘blessed’. OK, I may well be compressing the time-frame somewhat, but it’s a valid point, is it not?

This is another of Scotland’s obscure sites, as Greywether and Postie make clear (was it really so recent Postie?), very much hidden away in a boggy forestry clearing above the quiet – very quiet – eastern flank of Loch Fyne. The B8000 wiggles and weaves along said coastline to allow the motorist to get within striking distance of the monument, but upon parking near Auchnaha House one gets a distinct feeling of being an unwelcome guest. Private Estate signs abound, the hillside barred by a seriously tall wire fence. However further investigation reveals this to end before the forest line to my right, leaving a corridor of forestry devastation to overcome for anyone thinking of coming this way.

As it happens, I do, but all the clambering and whatnot results in me initially missing sight of the little standing stone guiding visitors to the clearing. However I backtrack and there it is... at first appearing simply to be a jumble of overgrown stones.... with a great big ruddy christmas tree on top! However orientate yourself and have a wander and a large inner and outer chamber (with slipped capstone), together with numerous orthostats from what must have once been an impressive facade materialise from the chaos. Moss and lichen are having a field day, as are the midges in the damp, humid atmosphere.... cue the usual improvised head gear, so no ‘scale’ shots in order to preserve what may still serve me as a reputation. Baldrick would’ve been proud... perhaps I could swop it for a visit from Time Team? A much more worthy cause than another bleedin’ R*man villa. Yawn.

Despite the state of the site, the sense of isolation here, together with the substantial remains give Auchnaha a true ‘I’m glad I came’ feel. Hang in there girl, hang in there.

Auchnaha

postman
postman Mar 26, 2010

Cup and ring marked rocks can be very difficult to find, they’re too small and all too easily concealed, I’m on a much better footing with stone circles and burial chambers, so here we go off into the dark wood again.
Like my burial chamber guru guide Greywether I parked just south of Auchnaha house and started up the hillside with forest to my right and recently felled mayhem to my left. As I climbed higher I came to a long tree free corridor in the forest with the power lines going along it, from here I could see what looked like a small standing stone, upon closer inspection it seemed to be that very thing, close by a fallen tree hid the entrance into a clearing, is it behind the fallen tree? I skirted around and under the obstacle only to find a site as horrific as someone like me could find, more trees had fallen onto the burial chamber.
Three tall conifers had fallen on to the stones themselves “oh dear god no” I said to no-one.
I couldnt tell if there were more stones under the trees than still free and open, after looking at Greywethers pictures I think it was lucky, the capstone is unmoved as are the facade stones, I dont even know how to make sense of what i can see, I cant find the inscribed cross stone, the whole place is a mess, granted the burial chamber wasnt exactly intact before the forest attacked it, a sad place, I hope the respective authorities know of and are about to do something about it rather than the onus being completely upon myself to help this Scottish war cry, let me hear you shout it AUCHNAHAAAAAAA !!!

Auchnaha

greywether
greywether Apr 5, 2004

Great name. Sounds like a Scots war cry.

Great site too. Fully developed Clyde cairn with well defined crescentic facade, one slipped capstone and truly megalithic chamber.

One facade stone has been “sanctified” with a Christian cross.

More details with the photo captions.

The bad news is that it’s in a clearing in a forest with no defined path in. Why do they do that? One fewer row of trees to create an access would hardly be missed surely.

Park at the forest road just S of Auchnaha cottage. Cross the road and head straight into the forest – it’s not too dense here. Shortly, there is a forest ride with telegraph poles. Turn right up the hill. The site is in the clearing to the left at the top of the hill.

Visited 31 March 2004

Sites within 20km of Auchnaha

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.