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Corrimony

    Drumnadrochit, Highland


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Looking north. The portal stones of the entrance passageway are immediately behind the standing stone in the foreground.
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Looking northeast towards the entrance.
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Another view to the northeast.
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Looking northeast along the passageway into the chamber.
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The western arc of the circle.
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The northwestern arc of the circle. The second standing stone from the left is cup-marked on its external face.
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The southwestern arc of the circle. The triple stone in the foreground is a late addition, possibly using lintel stones from the cairn or actual standing stones from the original circle.
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The cup-marked stone on the northwest of the cairn.
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Detail of one of the cup marks.
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Looking south along the western arc.
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Looking south along the eastern arc. The decorated slab can be seen lying on top of the body of the cairn.
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The cairn, looking south.
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The slab on the cairn body.
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Stones on the eastern arc.
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Detail of the decorated slab. Possibly a capstone.
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Detail of the decorated slab. Possibly a capstone.
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The chamber from the outside, now open to the sky.
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A stone on the eastern arc with a modern arrow (not unlike a benchmark carving) carved into its north face.
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The entrance passage.
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Looking at the wall and entrance passage from inside the chamber.
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The northern wall inside the chamber.
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Looking out through the entrance passage.
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The eastern arc, looking north.
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The cairn from the southeast.
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Looking northwest.
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A view from the northeast.
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Corrimony is a very impressive Clava-style cairn. And unusual in that the passage entrance is still intact.

The definitive Clava cairns are those at Balnuaran of Clava.

As is common with this style, the cairn has a large circular chamber with a passageway pointing to the position of the moonset at the southern minor standstill of the moon. Around the cairn is a circle of standing stones.

The circle has been much disturbed, so it is not clear how many stones were originally in the circle. There are currently 12 stones standing. One of the stones on the northwest of the circle has a number of cup marks on the external face.

Lying on the body of the cairn is a large slab that is heavily decorated with cup marks. It is generally supposed that this formed a capstone to the central chamber when the cairn was intact, but there is also a reasonable theory that this may have been another stone that stood in the circle at one time.

The cairn was excavated in 1952 and traces of a crouched burial - disolved by the acidic ground water to just leave a stain of the bones - were found beneath the intact floor of the cairn.


External Links:

Find Corrimony (or the nearest known site) at the Megalithic Portal