Monument record MHG32414 - Holm Mains cist

Two cist burials were identified during construction work at Holm Mains Farm in 2003 and both were subsequently excavated by Headland Archaeology. This, the easternmost of the two, was a well-constructed cist built of large stone slabs with a pressed pebble floor and a single, massive capstone. It contained the robust remains of an individual male placed in a crouched position. The burial was accompanied by two barbed and tanged arrowheads, ten further lithic tools and fragments of a finely decorated beaker. Outlying features comprised several pits and ditches, located near to the cists but which produced no artefacts to aid with dating and there was nothing to link these discoveries to the two cists. <1>

The finds from this burial are in now in the collections of Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.

The arrowheads and knife were photographed at Inverness Museum in 2013 by members of the ARCH Hilton Local Heritage course. <2>