23 May 2020
A Bronze Age Cemetery – The Clava Cairns near Inverness
I visted the site in early summer 2013, a year before Claire Beauchamp-Randall stepped through a cleft stone into pre-Culloden Scotland, and brought a trail of visitors to the hence quite place. Back then, the Clava Cairns at Balnuaran, not far from the battlefield of Culloden, were a lovely spot, especially on a sunny day. Now the inrush of visitors – not all of them respectful to the ancient monuments, alas – has led to some damage of the site.
Clava Cairns – some standing stones and one of the cairns
The Clava Cairns consist of the remains of three cairns which are rather well preserved, with the walls still intact and only the domed roofs gone, and a number of standing stones. The stones are not as tall as those in the Ring of Brodgar, but they are placed in positions of astronomical importance. The cairns had been dated as Neolithic, but a survey by Prof. Richard Bradley in the 1990ies proved that there were constructed in the Bronze Age.
The cairns
Cairns are mounds often erected over burials and sometimes serve as sort or markers. The ones at Balnuaran date to about 2000 BC, but some additions were made a thousand years later. There may have been two to four more cairns in the row at Balnuaran, all situated on a gravel terrace above the river Nairn. Excavations have shown that the area had been settled and farmed since 2500 BC at least; prior to the erection of the cairns.
Clava Cairns, seen from the south
The specific style of the Clava Cairns – which gave the name to this type – can be found mostly in Moray and around Inverness; there are about 50 of them. The ring of gravel and ashlar that forms the basis of the cairns is set in a double ring of large kerb stones. Some of these show cup and ring markings. Over the chamber, a domed roof was erected. Originally, the cairns were about 3 to 4 metres in height. Usually, a corbelled passage leads to the inner chamber, facing south-west towards the midwinter sunset. But the middle cairn in Balnuaran is a ring cairn without a passage; it has always remained unroofed.
Some of the stones
The cairns are surrounded by stone circles in 10-15 metres distance. The spacing between the stones is rather wide. The size of the megaliths increases towards the entrance of the passages, and stones of a redder hue were chosen, while the smallest exemplars are found on the opposite side of the cairns. The stones surrounding the middle ring cairn are of roughly the same size; some are connected to the cairn by a sort of paved stone 'rays'.
More standing stones
Burials of the Clava Cairn type contained but one or two bodies. Few bone remains have been found, an no complete skeleton. Considering the work it took to erect such a cairn, one can assume that those buried there were important members of the local society, some sort of chief or priest. Or maybe a priestess – not enough bones are left to tell. Despite the passages, it seems that no further burials were added in the years after the erection of the cairns. Maybe a visit to the dead or the possibility of the dead to spiritually join the living was part of some ceremonies.
North-east cairn with megalith in the foreground
The cemetery was resused around 1000 BC. Some new burials were placed outside the cairns; bone fragments were found to date those. A few smaller momuments (like the kerb ring) were added. We don't know if the site was used for burials in between, though it doesn't seem to have been the case. It is very likely, though, that the site played a role in ceremonies during that millenium and maybe beyond. The area had always been settled.
One of the stone circles
The way the cairns are arranged, with the passage entrances facing towards the sunset at winter solstice and the various henges surrounding them point at a use of the site for astronomic and ceremonial / spiritual purposes – both of which were often linked in Bronze Age cultures. The ring and cup marks on some of the stones inside and outside the cairns may also have had some ritual significance.
Now let's have a look at the individual cairns.
The north-eastern cairn
The so-called north-east cairn is a passage grave. The chamber itself was about 4 metres high and covered by a domed stone roof; the passage was covered as well, butit was so low that a human could not have stood upright. More like a crawl space.
The passage of the north-east cairn
The outer edge of the circular cairn is supported by a kerb of larger stones that keep the rubble from disintegrating. The use of sandstone of various hues of red and beige/white for the kerb once gave it a distinct pattern.
Interior of the north-east cairn
The inner floor was paved, and the inner walls also were supported by larger kerb stones, some of them with ring and cup marks (which are not well visible on my photos, alas). Most of those stones are still in place. I could not find any information whether the domed roof was supported by beams or constructed by a layer of skilfully placed flat stones. The latter is well possible, as the houses in Skara Brae show.
North-east cairn, view out of the passage
After a short time of use, a rubble platform was heaped up to cover the kerb ring and the entrance of the passage. On that platform, a scatter of seashells and cremated bones, as well as a number of lithic artifacts, have been found which points at a later re-use of the site after the passage and chamber were sealed.
The ring cairn
The central cairn is different from the other two. It is a ring cairn without a passage way which has always been open at the centre. The ring of gravel and ashlar was supported by kerb stones outside and inside; some of the outside stones are decorated with cup marks, and, like in the other cairns, they are of contrasting hues of sandstone. The outer kerb ring has been partly destroyed.
View to the ring cairn (left)
It is assumed that the ring cairn surrounded a funeral pyre, based on finds from the 1950ies which included some charred pieces of bone. The interior was once filled with a layer of rubble as high as the kerbs, but that has been removed during the 1950ies excavation.
Standing stones with the ring cairn in the background
The placement of the ring cairn is interesting. It is set off the line of the cairns as to allow an unobstructed view between them. The ring of stones surrounding it is today incomplete (as is the one around the south-west cairn; see below).
View from the ring cairn to the north-east cairn
The function of this unusual cairn within the setting of the Clava Cairns remains unexplained, but a connection to the other cairns exists by the pattern of the standing stones. A similar ring cairn has been found in Aberdeenshire.
The south-west cairn
The south-west cairn is another passage grave, almost identical to the north-east one. It too, seems to have been in use only for a short time before a platform of rubble was erected around the cairn, and the passage entrance blocked. A stone circle was set up as well.
South-west cairn, the passage
Two of those stones were removed in the 1870ies due to the construction of a road. At the time the trees now adorning the site were planted as well. The Victorians thought that those cairns and standing stones were pagan temples and wanted to recreated the vista of an ancient druid grove.
South-west cairn, interior
Some of the red sandstone boulders supporting the passage, as well as some stones in the outer kerb and the inner layer, are decoared with cup-marks. Some of those decorations face off towards the rubble filling and must have been carved before they were built into the cairn. It is possible that they belonged to an older building and have been reused.
Closeup of the stone layers
The first excavations at the site began as early as 1828; in the 1940ies, Prof. Alexander Thorn demonstrated that the alignment of the grave entrances points to the sunset at midwinter solstice. He also measured the standing stones and found out that the stone circles correspond to geometrical patterns like ovals and triangles and form a more complex overall pattern – which may have been of astronomical sigificance – than immediately visible.
Part of a ring of standing stones
The most excessive and important work was done by Richard Bradley in the 1990ies. Bradley concluded that the entire site was constructed during a single phase, though the place may have been in use prior to the erection of the cairns (and the cup and ring marked stones – or some of them – may have been integrated into the new structures). Interesting is the amount of quartz found near the caves. Bradley suggest that stones rich in quartz may once have formed the outer layer of the cairns and the stone platforms surrounding them, so that they would have sparkled in the sun.
One of the standing stones with a cairn in the background
It must have taken considerable effort to plan and erect those cairns and standing stones; surely a communal work directed by a chief or priest. That people were willing to take time off the farming and other daily routines to work on the site shows that it must have had an important function in the local Bronze Age society.
Cairn against the trees
The pattern of the Clava Cairns with the distinct use of kerb stones and outer platforms differs from cairns in other parts of Scotland and is restricted to the area around Inverness and Moray, though the type of the chambered passage cairn itself can be found everywhere in northern Britain and Ireland.
Cairn with surrounding stones
We can only guess the purpose of sites like the cairns at Balnuaran, but a religious significance is likely due to the connection with the dead and the sun. The situation of these specific cairns at the road along the Great Glen might also point at a use as gathering site for a larger group of people, maybe several clans or tribes in the highlands.
The river Nairn near the Clava Cairns
Sources
A visitor's guide to Balnuaran of Clava – a prehistoric cemetery, by Historic Scotland.
The site about the Clava Cairns on the Ancient History Encyclopedia (though I didn't elaborate on the more esoteric statements about caves and labyrinths being the navel of the earth and such mentioned on that page).
The Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland.
Standing stone
'Claire's Stone' as featured in the Outlander series. Do not use for time travel. You might end up in the Bronze Age and be forced to carry one of those big boys to its final place. *grin*
¶ May 23, 2020
I visted the site in early summer 2013, a year before Claire Beauchamp-Randall stepped through a cleft stone into pre-Culloden Scotland, and brought a trail of visitors to the hence quite place. Back then, the Clava Cairns at Balnuaran, not far from the battlefield of Culloden, were a lovely spot, especially on a sunny day. Now the inrush of visitors – not all of them respectful to the ancient monuments, alas – has led to some damage of the site.
The Clava Cairns consist of the remains of three cairns which are rather well preserved, with the walls still intact and only the domed roofs gone, and a number of standing stones. The stones are not as tall as those in the Ring of Brodgar, but they are placed in positions of astronomical importance. The cairns had been dated as Neolithic, but a survey by Prof. Richard Bradley in the 1990ies proved that there were constructed in the Bronze Age.
Cairns are mounds often erected over burials and sometimes serve as sort or markers. The ones at Balnuaran date to about 2000 BC, but some additions were made a thousand years later. There may have been two to four more cairns in the row at Balnuaran, all situated on a gravel terrace above the river Nairn. Excavations have shown that the area had been settled and farmed since 2500 BC at least; prior to the erection of the cairns.
The specific style of the Clava Cairns – which gave the name to this type – can be found mostly in Moray and around Inverness; there are about 50 of them. The ring of gravel and ashlar that forms the basis of the cairns is set in a double ring of large kerb stones. Some of these show cup and ring markings. Over the chamber, a domed roof was erected. Originally, the cairns were about 3 to 4 metres in height. Usually, a corbelled passage leads to the inner chamber, facing south-west towards the midwinter sunset. But the middle cairn in Balnuaran is a ring cairn without a passage; it has always remained unroofed.
The cairns are surrounded by stone circles in 10-15 metres distance. The spacing between the stones is rather wide. The size of the megaliths increases towards the entrance of the passages, and stones of a redder hue were chosen, while the smallest exemplars are found on the opposite side of the cairns. The stones surrounding the middle ring cairn are of roughly the same size; some are connected to the cairn by a sort of paved stone 'rays'.
Burials of the Clava Cairn type contained but one or two bodies. Few bone remains have been found, an no complete skeleton. Considering the work it took to erect such a cairn, one can assume that those buried there were important members of the local society, some sort of chief or priest. Or maybe a priestess – not enough bones are left to tell. Despite the passages, it seems that no further burials were added in the years after the erection of the cairns. Maybe a visit to the dead or the possibility of the dead to spiritually join the living was part of some ceremonies.
The cemetery was resused around 1000 BC. Some new burials were placed outside the cairns; bone fragments were found to date those. A few smaller momuments (like the kerb ring) were added. We don't know if the site was used for burials in between, though it doesn't seem to have been the case. It is very likely, though, that the site played a role in ceremonies during that millenium and maybe beyond. The area had always been settled.
The way the cairns are arranged, with the passage entrances facing towards the sunset at winter solstice and the various henges surrounding them point at a use of the site for astronomic and ceremonial / spiritual purposes – both of which were often linked in Bronze Age cultures. The ring and cup marks on some of the stones inside and outside the cairns may also have had some ritual significance.
Now let's have a look at the individual cairns.
The so-called north-east cairn is a passage grave. The chamber itself was about 4 metres high and covered by a domed stone roof; the passage was covered as well, butit was so low that a human could not have stood upright. More like a crawl space.
The outer edge of the circular cairn is supported by a kerb of larger stones that keep the rubble from disintegrating. The use of sandstone of various hues of red and beige/white for the kerb once gave it a distinct pattern.
The inner floor was paved, and the inner walls also were supported by larger kerb stones, some of them with ring and cup marks (which are not well visible on my photos, alas). Most of those stones are still in place. I could not find any information whether the domed roof was supported by beams or constructed by a layer of skilfully placed flat stones. The latter is well possible, as the houses in Skara Brae show.
After a short time of use, a rubble platform was heaped up to cover the kerb ring and the entrance of the passage. On that platform, a scatter of seashells and cremated bones, as well as a number of lithic artifacts, have been found which points at a later re-use of the site after the passage and chamber were sealed.
The central cairn is different from the other two. It is a ring cairn without a passage way which has always been open at the centre. The ring of gravel and ashlar was supported by kerb stones outside and inside; some of the outside stones are decorated with cup marks, and, like in the other cairns, they are of contrasting hues of sandstone. The outer kerb ring has been partly destroyed.
It is assumed that the ring cairn surrounded a funeral pyre, based on finds from the 1950ies which included some charred pieces of bone. The interior was once filled with a layer of rubble as high as the kerbs, but that has been removed during the 1950ies excavation.
The placement of the ring cairn is interesting. It is set off the line of the cairns as to allow an unobstructed view between them. The ring of stones surrounding it is today incomplete (as is the one around the south-west cairn; see below).
The function of this unusual cairn within the setting of the Clava Cairns remains unexplained, but a connection to the other cairns exists by the pattern of the standing stones. A similar ring cairn has been found in Aberdeenshire.
The south-west cairn is another passage grave, almost identical to the north-east one. It too, seems to have been in use only for a short time before a platform of rubble was erected around the cairn, and the passage entrance blocked. A stone circle was set up as well.
Two of those stones were removed in the 1870ies due to the construction of a road. At the time the trees now adorning the site were planted as well. The Victorians thought that those cairns and standing stones were pagan temples and wanted to recreated the vista of an ancient druid grove.
Some of the red sandstone boulders supporting the passage, as well as some stones in the outer kerb and the inner layer, are decoared with cup-marks. Some of those decorations face off towards the rubble filling and must have been carved before they were built into the cairn. It is possible that they belonged to an older building and have been reused.
The first excavations at the site began as early as 1828; in the 1940ies, Prof. Alexander Thorn demonstrated that the alignment of the grave entrances points to the sunset at midwinter solstice. He also measured the standing stones and found out that the stone circles correspond to geometrical patterns like ovals and triangles and form a more complex overall pattern – which may have been of astronomical sigificance – than immediately visible.
The most excessive and important work was done by Richard Bradley in the 1990ies. Bradley concluded that the entire site was constructed during a single phase, though the place may have been in use prior to the erection of the cairns (and the cup and ring marked stones – or some of them – may have been integrated into the new structures). Interesting is the amount of quartz found near the caves. Bradley suggest that stones rich in quartz may once have formed the outer layer of the cairns and the stone platforms surrounding them, so that they would have sparkled in the sun.
It must have taken considerable effort to plan and erect those cairns and standing stones; surely a communal work directed by a chief or priest. That people were willing to take time off the farming and other daily routines to work on the site shows that it must have had an important function in the local Bronze Age society.
The pattern of the Clava Cairns with the distinct use of kerb stones and outer platforms differs from cairns in other parts of Scotland and is restricted to the area around Inverness and Moray, though the type of the chambered passage cairn itself can be found everywhere in northern Britain and Ireland.
We can only guess the purpose of sites like the cairns at Balnuaran, but a religious significance is likely due to the connection with the dead and the sun. The situation of these specific cairns at the road along the Great Glen might also point at a use as gathering site for a larger group of people, maybe several clans or tribes in the highlands.
Sources
A visitor's guide to Balnuaran of Clava – a prehistoric cemetery, by Historic Scotland.
The site about the Clava Cairns on the Ancient History Encyclopedia (though I didn't elaborate on the more esoteric statements about caves and labyrinths being the navel of the earth and such mentioned on that page).
The Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland.
'Claire's Stone' as featured in the Outlander series. Do not use for time travel. You might end up in the Bronze Age and be forced to carry one of those big boys to its final place. *grin*
¶ May 23, 2020
