Cairn of Gask

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Gask Cairn and Menhir
Scheme of a Clava Cairns

The Cairn of Gask is a megalithic complex of the Clava Cairn type . It is located seven kilometers south of Inverness in the Council Area Highland in Scotland , east of the B861 near its confluence with the B851, 300 m south of the "Mains of Gask Farm".

Gask menhir

Clava Cairns (or Ring Cairns ) were primarily built in Inverness-shire in the final stages of the Neolithic . They consist of an inner and an outer ring of closely set curb stones, between which the up to 1.2 m high stone mound made of manageable (about head-sized) stone formats is piled. The central paved area is accessible in some specimens via a covered corridor. In its original state , a stone circle of widely set menhirs is concentric around the Cairns .

The Ring Cairn by Gask is 27 meters in diameter and is the largest in the Clava Cairns group. He's in a good condition. The cairn is still framed by the outer stone circle, the menhirs of which are mostly still in situ . As usual with the Cairns of the Clava Group, the largest curbs are in the southwest. The largest is about 1.4 m high. On the other hand, only a few stones of the inner ring are recognizable, as the cairn material has slipped into the inner circle.

The cairn is surrounded by the rest of its stone circle, of which only three stones have survived. At least five more are missing. A stone carried near the north side of the Cairn carries three bowls .

The most striking part of the complex is a large plate menhir in the southwest of the stone circle. It is about 3.4 m high and 3.0 m wide, but only 22 cm thick.

Nearby is the chamber tomb in the Tomfat Plantation .

literature

  • Richard Bradley : The moon and the bonfire. An investigation of three stone circles in north-east Scotland. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2005, ISBN 0-903903-33-4 .
  • Jörg Lindenbeck: Investigations into late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age grave forms in south-west Scotland. In: Archaeological Information . Vol. 11, No. 2, 1988, pp. 228-232.
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Web links

Coordinates: 57 ° 23 ′ 38 "  N , 4 ° 11 ′ 56"  W.