Bargrennan chambered cairns are a class of prehistoric
chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...
s found only in south-west Scotland, in western
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...
and southern
Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
.
They form a separate group from the
Clyde cairns which are found along the coast of western Britain. Unlike Clyde cairns, Bargrennan monuments are passage graves, with one or more chambers set into a round cairn. As well as being structurally different, Bargrennan cairns are separated from Clyde cairns by their siting and distribution; they are found in upland, inland areas of Galloway and Ayrshire.
Murray suggests that there are around twelve Bargrennan monuments in south-west Scotland. She also notes that as sheep rees are often built into and over these types of cairns, more are likely to have been lost under shepherd's buildings.
The type site is White Cairn,
Bargrennan
Bargrennan church
Bargrennan (Scottish Gaelic: ''Bar Grianain'', meaning height of the summer house or sunny spot) is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, in the south west of Scotland. It is located 9 miles northwest of Newton Stewart by the Rive ...
. This monument and nearby
Cairnderry chambered cairn have been excavated but having been previously robbed out neither have provided material for dating. Both sites show extensive reuse in the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
, including the addition of a Bronze Age
cist
A cist ( or ; also kist ;
from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East ...
in White Cairn. It has been suggested that this may indicate an early Bronze Age date for sites of this type.
However, a mid to late
Neolthic date has also been suggested.
Further reading
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References
{{Prehistoric Scotland
Megalithic monuments in Scotland
Neolithic Scotland
Chambered cairns in Scotland