Clava Cairns — North-East Passage Cairn

The north-east cairn at Balnuaran of Clava is one of two passage graves flanking a central ring cairn. The main cemetery was established around 2000 BC, and its monuments combine stone cairns, burial chambers and surrounding circles of standing stones. A passage through this cairn leads into its central chamber. Both passage graves face south-west, an orientation associated with the midwinter sunset; the grading of the surrounding standing stones reinforces that direction. The group gave its name to a distinctive class of burial monuments concentrated around Inverness and the Moray Firth. Cup-marked stones incorporated into the cairns may have been reused from earlier settings. Later activity elsewhere in the cemetery shows that the place retained significance long after the first monuments were built. Although the layout is well preserved, the original contents of the chambers were cleared long ago, limiting what can be said about individual burials. Period: Bronze Age; part of a cemetery established around 2000 BC Grid reference: NH 75765 44478 Protection: Source: Historic Environment Scotland, https://www.trove.scot/place/14257 (Open Government Licence). Contains Historic Environment Scotland data licensed under the Open Government Licence; source compiler retained per record. Banner photo: "Clava Kerb Cairn" by Anne Burgess, via Geograph (https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/8011859), licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.