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Cairn

Cairn, unclassified

What is recorded here

No human is certain whether the site is a boundary marker, a burial, a votive offer or a discarded heap. The chamber is empty, the roof is gone and the chamber contains no visible structure. What is certain is that people cut through living rock, fitted stone edges and left the completed chamber exposed on an open hill. The absence of a body, deposit or intact chamber removes the usual clues but does not remove the act of making the chamber.
In the NW quadrant of the inner enclosure of Mooghaun hillfort (CL042-072001-). Excavated in 1993, this cairn (4.9m N-S; 3.7m E-W; H 0.4m) consisted of limestone slabs in an irregular oval shape. No discernible pattern was found to the layering of the stone slabs. The largest slabs were at N; these were flat limestone slabs in an upright or acute angled position. The soil among the stones was a uniform grey-brown gravelly material with occasional flecks of charcoal. It was concluded that this was a clearance cairn in an area where building operations involved quarrying large stone from the bedrock. (Condit and Grogan 2005, 122; Grogan 2005, vol. 1, 138) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 5 January 2016

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What survives
Recorded monument

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