The Kerb Cairn

This small monument was probably a later addition to the cemetery.

Comparisons with other sites suggest a date around 1000BC, nearly a millenium after the three main cairns were built. During the same phase both of the passage graves were reused. Similar evidence of secondary use is found in many monuments in northern Scotland.

The circle of boulders may have defined the limits of a low earthen mound which seems to have covered a grave, although little remained when the site was excavated in the 1950s. The only finds were pieces of flint and a scatter of white quartz pebbles.

It is no accident that this structure was added to the Clava cemetery, for it reflects some of the characteristics of the other monuments.

Again the boulders are graded by height,although this is not pronounced. The lowest are towards the north-east and the higher stones to the south-west. They make careful use of differently coloured raw materials. Generally speaking, groups of red or pink boulders alternate with those which are white. A large flat stone which provides a kind of threshold is decorated with a series of abstract designs similar to those found on other 'Clava cairns' and on natural rock surfaces in Strathnairn. Most are pecked hollows or 'cup marks', but one of these has been closed by a ring.

-from the Historic Scotland Information Board