Tigh Cloiche

Also known as:
South Clettraval
Nearest town:
Uig (64km E)
OS reference:
NF752710
OS sheet:
18
Latitude:
57° 36' 42.25 N
Longitude:
7° 26' 24.81 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by drewbhoy

This looking straight north gives a better idea about the chamber size.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 9, 2019
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by drewbhoy

On a good from here you can see St Kilda, eventually we did but from an unexpected place.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 9, 2019
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by drewbhoy

Looking straight down into the remains of the chamber.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 9, 2019
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by drewbhoy

One capstone appears to fallen, one appears almost in place.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 9, 2019
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by drewbhoy

Looking south east, the fallen chamber stones from behind.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 9, 2019
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by drewbhoy

These cover stones appear to have been moved a few meters.

Image credit: drew/A/B
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 9, 2019
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by greywether

The typically E facing passage covered by at least two lintels.

The apparent lack of headroom would be solved if fallen cairn material were removed from the entrance.

greywether
greywether Sep 29, 2004
Image of Tigh Cloiche (Chambered Cairn) by greywether

Chamber with fallen sidestones from the N.

In the distance (to the S) is a typical watery North Uist landscape with a series of lochs lying between the 10m and 20m contour lines. The cairn is 50m above this.

The hill in the distance is probably Ruabhal – the highest point on Benbecula at just over 400m.

greywether
greywether Sep 29, 2004

Articles

Tigh Cloiche

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Sep 26, 2019

Like Greywether I thought the Canmore fieldnotes a tad harsh as it looks like, to me, that someone (must have been a giant) has roughly pushed the whole thing side ways. Capstones have been scattered but the chamber appears ‘reasonably’ all there but fallen in. Side stones, as described by Greywether, remain in place.

Both of us seem to agree more with Henshall’s description :

Tigh Chloiche, South Clettraval, a chambered cairn, has been much disturbed by secondary buildings and its present form bears little relationship to its original plan.

The narrow and almost parallel-sided chamber is surrounded on the N, E and S by traces of what appear to be circular buildings. Four orthostats of the chamber remain on the SW but the northern part cannot be traced. The entrance was from the E but nothing can be seen of the passage walls. Large flat stone slabs lie displaced outside the chamber and, whereas the extent of the cairn is fairly well marked to the N. and E., it drops to an extensive low spread to the S and SE.

Finds of potsherds are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

A S Henshall 1972, visited 2 May 1962.

The size of the site, almost 19m wide and 1.5m tall, suggest cairn. Nobody can dispute the views!

Visited 24/7/2019.

Tigh Cloiche

greywether
greywether Sep 29, 2004

Having read Canmore and other reports before the visit, I had expected to be underwhelmed by this site.

Comments like “has been much disturbed by secondary buildings and its present form bears little relationship to its original plan” do not raise expectations.

To my eyes, what you actually get is a well fairly well preserved Hebridean Passage Grave with a lintelled passage plus chamber with a few side stones still standing a most of the rest fallen into the chamber.

Any secondary building was limited to the outside cairn material and, reading the reports again after the visit, maybe that’s what they meant.

But don’t be put off. This is a site worth visiting especially if you’ve come to see Clettraval anyway.

Visited 27 July 2004

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