Monument record MHG11630 - Chambered Cairn, Embo

Report to John Wood that there are cupmarks on some of the chamber stones - HAW 10/2003

NH89SW 9 8177 9265.

An Orkney-Cromarty type round cairn with 2 chambers and intrusive short cists and cremations lay 111' NNE of Boston House on the links at about NH 8175 9265. It was a small, irregular, inconspicuous, turf and sand covered, oval mound, measuring about 42' by 30' which had obviously been much disturbed before 1956 when the first excavation took place (Henshall and Taylor 1959) A rescue dig was undertaken in July 1960 when the landowner proposed to remove the cairn to make a car-park. It proved to be of such interest that it was preserved in car-park, although soft sand-stone of orthostats is weathering rapidly. The lower part of cairn was of large flat slabs beneath a mixture of sand and rounded irregular boulders. There was no definite edging to the cairn, but there was a rough kerb on SE side, 9' from chamber. There was no definite evidence for southern chamber with a smaller cairn being earlier, but northern might be an addition to the original plan. The passage and entrance to southern chamber had been deliberately blocked.
One cist had been set into southern chamber, and contained an intact food-vessel and jet beads. The other had been inserted into the centre of the cairn and contained the skeletons of two babies accompanied by a foodvessel and beaker sherds. A speck of corroded bronze lay near the centre.
Of nine cremations found, one was accompanied by fragments of a MBA bifid bronze razor, another by part of a bronze blade, probably part of a razor.
The finds were donated to NMAS by landowner, J Macintosh of Embo House.
A S Henshall and H W Y Taylor 1959; A S Henshall and J C Wallace 1965;
J M Coles 1966; Information from MS of Chambered Cairns of Scotland, by A S Henshall.

An Orkney-Cromarty chambered cairn as described and planned by Henshall, preserved within an iron railing at NH 8177 9265 in the forecourt of "Grannies Heilan' Hame".
The two chambers and the central cist with capstone survive, but the cist within the S chamber is not evident. The cairn is truncated in the E by the railing and car-park.
Surveyed at 1/2500. Visited by OS (A A) 23 March 1971.

Full description. A S Henshall 1972.
NH89SW 9 8177 9265.

Application for scheduled monument consent to erect a sandstone wall 350mm high and to cut off the existing sign a t ground level and erect a new sign (850mm by 600mm) on a stone plinth at the end of the proposed wall within the scheduled area of the SAM.
Scheduled Monument Consent granted on 13/02/02.
See assoc. docs. File.
J Aitken : 19/02/02.

Two photographs of the fallen stones of the souther chamber of the passage cairn were submitted by Douglas Scott in July 2011. One of the photographs highlights a large cupmark on one of the fallen stones. <2>