argyll-1971/01-048

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INTRODUCTION: THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD
North-east Ireland, and their most enduring monuments are their burial cairns, conceived
on a monumental scale for communal burial over many generations. The eleven examples
known in the peninsula belong to one particular group of chambered tombs, comprising about
one hundred in all, which share common characteristics of design, construction and content.
Their distribution is predominantly coastal, extending from the Solway Firth to Benderloch,
with a few outliers to the north and east ; the largest concentration is centred on the Firth of
Clyde, nearly two-thirds of the total being situated on the islands of Arran and Bute and the
adjoining mainland of Argyll.
Formerly this group of cairns, and a series of generally comparable cairns in Northern
Ireland, were classed together and regarded as the products of a single "Clyde-Carlingford"
culture. However, recent research1 has shown that the two groups must now be considered
to have evolved independently, although they were broadly contemporaneous and ultimately
derived from common sources. The Scottish monuments are, therefore, separately distin-
guished and termed the Clyde-Solway group, or simply Clyde Cairns. Their distribution in
Kintyre (Fig. 1), which is markedly southern and eastern, only one example (No. 3) occurring
on the west side of the peninsula, indicates a preference by their builders for the more fertile
areas, in particular the raised-beach deposits and alluvial gravels.
As a result of the excavation of about a dozen examples during the past twenty years, a
great deal has been learnt about the structural evolution of the Clyde Cairns, and of particular
importance has been the disclosure that a considerable proportion of them are of composite
construction, incorporating one or more earlier structures. No two examples are exactly alike,
and their superficial appearance today may often afford little hint of their complicated history.
In their initial form, however, during the early part of the third millennium B.C., they were
simple in plan and most probably consisted of a single burial-chamber, rectangular in shape and
of megalithic construction, set within a round or oval cairn. During this stage there is little
evidence for external contacts, but their subsequent development was progressively affected by
influences coming from other areas, firstly from South-west England and South Wales, and
secondly from Ireland. In more developed forms the chamber becomes elongated to accom-
modat several compartment (normally between two and five) separated by transverse slabs, and
the cairn itself may assume a trapezoidal or elongated shape. The perimeter of the cairn may be
defined by a dry-stone or orthostatic kerb or peristalith, and the broader end may have a flat
or gently-curving facade consisting of orthostats or dry-stone walling, or a combination of
both in "post and panel" fashion. From the centre of the facade direct access to the main burial-
chamber could be gained between a pair of upright portal-stones (simple entrance) or, in some
cases, by a very short passage or adit, either end of which was defined by a pair of portals
(complex entrance). Features such as the trapezoidal shape of the cairn, the flat facade and the
use of dry-stone walling as found at Beacharr (No. 3) can be seen to be building techniques
adopted from the Cotswold-Severn2 group of chambered tombs of South-west Britain. In its
most fully developed form the cairn may increase in length (normally not more than 46 m),
while the forecourt takes a deep concave shape and the complex entrance becomes obsolete. In
addition to the main burial-chamber, which is normally aligned with the long axis of the cairn

1 Megalithic Enquiries, 175 ff, ; Henshall, A.S., The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, ii, forthcoming.
2 Megalithic Enquiries, 211.

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