endlessrarities | (no subject)

It's Burns Night, so naturally I have to post about something Scottish or Scots-related. No Burns Supper for us tonight - we had our veggie haggis, neeps and tatties on Sunday, and very tasty it was too...

Inspired by the forthcoming Scottish adventure of

nobleplatypus , I thought I'd wax lyrical about the Clava Cairns. They're a peculiar bunch of prehistoric monuments found almost exclusively in north-east Scotland - though I think it's been argued that the famous Temple Wood Stone Circle in Argyll may also be included in the Claxa Cairn category.

They are located near Fort George, and are just down the road from Culloden, too. They're not the easiest monuments in the world to photograph, as they're located in trees and form quite a compact group:-

The assumption was that these monuments date to the Earlier Bronze Age. For decades, there's been a general assumption that the Earlier Bronze Age was the time of monument building, when imposing sites like Stonehenge, the Clava Cairns, and the many pond, disc, saucer and other barrows were built in the landscape. The Later Bronze Age, by contrast, was a time when domestic architecture came to the fore - there was the first appearance of hillforts, etc.

The situation in north-east Scotland isn't quite as straightforward as that. Recent excavations by that illustrious and renowned prehistorian Prof. Richard Bradley (one of my Gurus of Theoretical Archaeology) has revealed that the Clava Cairns were much later in date than had previously been supposed, dating in fact to the later Bronze Age. He has written a weighty tome about these monuments, The Good Stones, which is unfortunately out of print....

The Clava Cairns don't look anything like Stonehenge, but they be organised on similar principles. They begin as simple structures, which become increasingly elaborate as they are altered and modified by successive generations. These alterations serve to obscure the sacred spaces at the centre of the monuments, emphasising the divisions between those who are qualified to intercede between the living and the dead Ancestors, and those who look on from the outside.

Some more views now:-

There are some cup-marked stones built into these monuments, but unfortunately my photos of these were blurred. Clava Cairns are unusual in that they have an external and internal kerb, with the area in between infilled with stones. There's a central space accessed by a long passage, and in their final phases, the whole structure was covered by a larger mound. It's the excavated and reconstructed monument that we see today.

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I've been there!!! : ) I have pictures of Adam at Clava cairns and I have pictures of the kids at Temple Woods (one of my favourite places in the world - thank you for being the first to take me there!)

My poor kids get dragged to historical places no matter where we go! My eldest son was able to correct his school teacher about the Battle of Culloden. She had to look up his fact and then conceeded he was right. He was in primary 4!! She asked me how he knew and I said that I had taken him to Culloden and told him about it! Simples!! lol However, the actual fact escapes me now! lol

I remember you did a blog post about Clava.

And I remember the day you did a great impression of an EBA crouched inhumation at Ri Cruin...

It is great that we have all this history still available to visit. How old are they?

I just looked up the RCAHMS website, but they haven't posted the RC dates as yet. If I remember right, they're probably around 1500 - 1000 BC, rather than the c. 2000-1800 BC that would previously have been expected.

Ha ha!

treenahasthaal beat me to it! I was just about to say... 'I've been there!!!'

Many years ago I visited a friend who lives in Dingwall. This was one of our expeditions. Lovely, mysterious spot. And we went somewhere with a 'fairy tree?' Unsure how accurately I'm recalling this. It was a place where people left offerings hanging in a tree ~ but I think it was more than simply, 'a tree...'

The only 'votive' tree I've seen in my travels was near West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire. The old practice still survives - it was common in post-Reformation Scotland to tie bits of fabric from the garments of the sick or ailing to trees near holy wells in the hope that the saints would intercede on behalf of the supplicant. The practice still remains in places.

And I'm so glad that the Clava Cairns have already accumulated a devoted band of followers. They deserve it!!

This was definitely in Scotland ~ damn, I wish I could recall the name. It was almost a grotto ~ not just a tree ~ there were rags & votive offerings all over the place. It was magical & scared.

I know of the practice ~ I created a 'votive' tree in my old garden & know several women who have them in theirs. This one though was very old.

These are cool, impressive. I wonder what they looked like when they were first built, what the area was like & the people.....

Thank you for sharing. Amazing.