A Chambered Cairn at Allt-nam-Ban, Strathbrora, Sutherland

Extract

In the Sutherlandshire Report of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (no. 44), under the parish of Clyne, a short description is given of a chambered cairn on the left bank of the Allt-nam-Ban, a small burn which briskly flows into the eastern side of Loch Brora. The description is dated 25 August 1909, and shows very clearly that when Mr. Alexander O. Curie, then secretary of the Commission, surveyed the cairn on that day, it was already in a much dilapidated condition. I visited the cairn on 27 April 1928, and was shocked to find that the whole of its southern half had been carted away for road-metal, exposing the interior construction with all the distinctness of an orange cut in two. As additional information is thus available with regard to the structure of the cairn, and also because the whole monument will probably disappear within a very short time, I made a careful survey of the cairn, and have pleasure in submitting the following description, along with a plan and photographs.