SM-1: Camas nan Geall Chambered Cairn

This post is the first of what may become a series covering the seventeen scheduled monuments of Western Ardnamurchan - see the list here.

The chambered cairn at Camas nan Geall is Neolithic in age, something like 6,000 years old, and is of the Hebridean type. It lies at the southern end of, and is largely obscured by the line of sycamore trees which runs down the farm track through the field to the sea - some of the stones are just visible at the left hand end of the trees at the centre of the photograph, which was taken from the car park to the east.

This map is taken from PastMap, which is the best way of finding known archaeological and historical sites. It gives access directly to sites recorded by Historic Environment Scotland ('Historic Scotland' until recently) and to Highland Council's Historic Environment Record, which also lists and describes sites.

This diagram at left shows what the structure may originally have looked like, while the photograph (a close-up view of the first) uses the same numbers. The 'cist' chamber (1) consists of two large, flat upright stones (in black) and a cap stone (unshaded) which has fallen. In front of them (2) stand two 'portal' stones which, as the name suggests, formed the two sides of the door into the tomb. Running in a crescent on either side of the portal stones were a number of large, flat 'facade' stones, of which two remain: one (3) remains standing and one (4) has fallen. All the other stones that formed the face of the monument are either buried or lost, probably broken up and now incorporated into the many buildings and walls of the site.

At either end of the facade there was a standing stone, of which only one (5), which is broken to a stump, remains - this is hidden by grass in the photo. It is easily found on the site as it is the only stone on the east side of the farm track, which runs almost exactly north-south beside it.

The area on the northwest side of the facade (6) was a large mound of rock which covered the cist. In front of the portal stones (7) lay a flat area in which one assumes is where the people attending ceremonies stood.

A later building (8) is shown as roofed in the 1872 Ordnance Survey map, though there is some suggestion that it may have had an earlier use as a chapel. As can be seen in the top photograph, it sits beside a man-made mound, which has not been explained.

This close-up view of the monument shows the one remaining standing facade stone, on the right, with the cist structure on the left. The two vertical stones at the front are the portal stones, the fallen cap stone can be seen lying at an angle, while one of its support stones can be seen to the right.

There are two other Neolithic chambered cairns on West Ardnamurchan, Greadal Fhinn in Ormsaigmore and Cladh Andreis at Swordle, both also scheduled monuments, but there may also be another found by the Raptor near Mingary Castle.

Sunshine

The unusual easterly wind is now firmly established and likely to stay in that quarter for the next few days, which is bad news for those areas of eastern Scotland which continues to suffer from disastrous floods. For us, it means the air has lost most of its moisture so, while we have some dark clouds, the sun has a chance to show his face.  The results are dramatic. The air is beautifully clear, and the colours seems to burn across the hillsides.

A gaggle of resident greylag geese were sunbathing in the fields of one of the Ormsaigbeg crofts when we walked down to the shop to collect a paper, but they had moved to the adjacent croft when we returned. We suspect that the crofter in the former had moved them on: greylags feed almost entirely on grass, and crofters prefer to keep their grass for their sheep.

Allt nan Gobhar Walk

Our weather over the last few weeks has been dominated by southeasterly winds. From memory, the prevailing winds and storms of twenty years ago were mainly southwesterlies, often going round into the west. An easterly has always been unusual, but that's what we have today, a stiff wind bringing occasional showers. Being soft after the pleasures of Christmas and the new year, we chose a walk today which was protected from the wind, leaving the car at the forestry corner just before the Kilmory turn (see map at end of post) and walking down into the glen of the Allt nan Gabhar, the goat burn, and then following it upstream towards Ben Hiant.

There's an impressive stone circle not far from the road, which is either a bronze to iron age hut circle or a rather older kerb cairn, though no signs of a cist burial are visible today. We found it some years ago and logged it on Highland Council's Historic Environment Register, but an officer of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland visited it in 2014 and recorded it - here - his/her conclusion being that it was a hut circle.

There are plenty of other signs of past human occupation. Although it may not look like it, the loose rocks beside the burn at bottom right of this picture are some sort of shelter, possibly the remains of yet another illicit whisky still, though this one isn't close to a waterfall as are all the others.

It's almost impossible to enjoy a walk across Ardnamurchan's hills without disturbing deer. These ones were part of a group of five which were lying down minding their own business when we spoilt their day. Although the forestry is separated from the open land by a deer fence, much of this is down in enough places for the deer to be able to clear it easily.

The Allt nan Gobhar is a lovely little burn, with plenty of rapids and waterfalls. While it isn't at its best on a grey January day, walking gently along it, listening to the bubble of the water, is a great pleasure; and, as always on these walks, there's something unusual to find, in today's case....

....another mound of the mysterious white jelly which we've found before - see earlier post here. The various links from that post make all sorts of suggestions as to what this can be, from frog spawn to 'star snot' to remnants of recent meteorite showers to fungus and or smashed jellyfish. This time, purely in the interests of science, we dissected the biggest of the blobs, on the right, and found that....

....it covered a compact mass of dark eggs very like frogspawn. Since the jelly was on a steep, gravelly slope about ten metres above the burn, something has to have moved it there, and the best suggestion is one that has been given before, that something like a heron ate either the spawn itself or a female frog carrying it, and then regurgitated it.

We followed the burn to the point where is emerges from the forestry, looking back towards the road with Beinn na Leathaid on the right and a distant Meall nan Con towards the left horizon. If only the sun had been out....

Satellite picture courtesy Bing Maps.

Goldeneye and Other Birds

This goldeneye, the first we've seen here, was spotted yesterday on Lochan na Cranaig on the Portuairk road. He was paddling around looking very lonely, as if he really wasn't sure how he'd found his way to such a remote spot.

Goldeneye populations vary from a few hundred breeding pairs in summer through to 20,000 visitors in winter, coming from northern and central Europe (BTO site here).

Back in November the Diary carried a distant view of a diver - here - swimming on Lochan nan Al by the shop. Correspondent David identified it as a female red-breasted merganser. Here's a better picture of what may be the same bird swimming on Kilchoan Bay on an unusually calm day.

We cannot recall having seen as many eagles as we have in the last few weeks. This pair of golden eagles was wheeling above Ormsaigbeg yesterday, but we've also had almost a daily fly-by by at least one sea eagle.

Closer to home, after a long absence, we were thrilled to see a pair of siskins back on our peanut feeders. This picture, taken yesterday, shows the male. A few months ago he wouldn't have tolerated a chaffinch feeding from the same plate, but the competition is now so fierce that he cannot afford to be fussy.

We last saw the male blackcap two days before Christmas. The female has stayed, and has the huge advantage over the other birds that, set up as they are, the two sultana feeders are now inaccessible except to her and the occasional bluetit, so she has her own, private food supply. She also eats peanuts, and is quite willing to fight for a place on those feeders. She has also been seen at the seed trays. We mourn her partner, and hope he wasn't eaten by the sparrowhawk, which is currently very active.

Welcome to 2016!