The Central Ring Cairn

Unroofed and with no entrance or passageway, this ring cairn was an open circular enclosure, built at about the same time as the passage graves at Clava.

The original structure consisted of a rubble wall, supported on both sides by a kerb. Both these kerbs were graded by height, with the lowest stones in the direction of the rising sun, and the tallest towards the south-west where the sun sets in midwinter. In the inner kerb the effect is so subtle that it is difficult to recognise. It seems possible that the surface of the enclosure wall was divided into segments of differently coloured stones like the slices of a cake.

On excavation the interior contained human bones and signs of burning.

The cairn could have been used as a tomb, but it could also have marked the position of a pyre, built to hold the ceremonies that may have accompanied the burials in the adjacent passage graves. The stones forming the cairn were never piled very high, creating a platform.

When its use was over, the enclosure was filled with rubble to make it level with the wall, and the ring cairn was enclosed by a stone circle.

This was also graded in height. When that happened, some of the divisions built into the enclosure wall were extended from the outer kerb to the standing stones. These can still be identified as banks of rubble. The builders also tried to match the colour, shape or material of the monoliths to the nearest stones in the inner and outer kerbs.

-from the Historic Scotland Information Board