Monument record MHG54933 - Earthwork mound, Mains of Clava

During field surveys in this area in the 1990s it was noted that a 19th-century wall had been built over an earthwork approximately 0.4m in height. The even profile suggests the former existence of a mound extending into the field where it had been destroyed by cultivation. This could not be confirmed by geophysical techniques but contour survey in the adjoining field revealed clear traces of such an earthwork. The mound appears to have been formed of redeposited topsoil. It may have been a free-standing barrow, like the nearby example at Miltown of Clava, or it could originally have been associated with a stone structure. The field wall which crosses the earthwork contains a number of very large pieces of rock.
Richard Bradley suggests that this feature may have formed part of a first phase of the Balnuaran cemetery, c.2000 BC, which may have consisted of as many as five monuments in a line along the centre of the gravel ridge. <1>