Skelpick Long
The as Skelpick Long designated (or Skelpick Burn) Long Cairn ( German "long hill" ) is the largest among the three megaliths , which in the hamlet Skelpick between Strathnaver and Farr in the Scottish Highlands in the county of Sutherland are. It is a slightly trapezoid so-called "Horned Cairn" of the Orkney – Cromarthy Passage Tombs type with a total length (hill including horns) of 72 m.
Both on the broader side at the northwestern end and on the narrower one at the southeastern end, so-called horns form semicircular forecourts together with the respective fronts of the hill. The northern one is about 13.5 m wide and seven meters deep, the southern ten meters wide and 3.5 m deep. The axis of the two chambers is arranged as a gallery and 4.5 m long corridor is at an obtuse angle to the axis of from quarry stone Cairns raised. Presumably, as with the Cairns of Camster and the Cairns of Cnoc Freiceadain in the county of Caithness, a formerly round Cairn (Rundcairn) was built over and thus turned into a long hill.
The polygonal chambers are 3.0 and 3.7 m in diameter and have been preserved up to a height of about 1.8 m. Its approximately 2.4 m long and 1.15 to 1.3 m wide entrance is filled with rubble. During the excavation in 1867 (Capt. Horsburgh), the original height of the inner chamber was estimated to be about three meters, although the upper part had already collapsed. Parts of the former false vault made of dry masonry were preserved above the wall stones of the chamber. These chamber walls consist of upright panels with dry or intermediate masonry in between . The lintels , a huge block at the end of the corridor and the one at the dividing point between the chambers, have also been preserved.
The remains of "Skelpick South" are located about 770 m to the southeast of Skelpick Long. There are no traces of the corridor and the chamber. The hill clearly shows the short, horned shape of the Skelpick Long. It is possible that internal structures are still intact. With "Skelpick Round" there is a third, but badly damaged, Cairn 450 m to the south-west. A basement is equally destroyed .
literature
- Audrey S. Henshall, JN Graham Ritchie: The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland. An inventory of the structures and their contents . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1995, ISBN 0-7486-0609-2 .
- Robert Gourlay, Sutherland - a historical guide , Birlinn, Edinburgh, 1996 ISBN 1-874744-44-0 pp. 24-25
Web links
Coordinates: 58 ° 28 '47.7 " N , 4 ° 11' 33.1" W.