On the horned cairns of Caithness : their structural arrangement, contents of chambers, &c. / by Joseph Anderson.
- Anderson, Joseph.
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the horned cairns of Caithness : their structural arrangement, contents of chambers, &c. / by Joseph Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
17/36 (page 493)
![498 eithei' from tlie direction of tlie cairns themselves or their cornutcd appendages. Perhaps the variations may he accounted for, by supposing the different cairns to liave been constructed at different periods of the year, with a rough attempt at orientation. Internal Structure.—It will be observed, on reference to the plan of the Ormiegill cairn (No. 4), that a circular wall, 80 feet in circum- ference, surrounds the chamber. This wall is built of square and heavy blocks, and presents a very marked contrast in this respect to the ex- terior walls, which are of light, thin, flat slabs. As has been previously remarked, the selection of these long, thin, and flat slabs for the con- struction of the outer walls, so as to produce a building that would be most firmly knit together and least liable to dilapidation, accords entirely with their purpose in the structure. If the purpose of the cir- cular wall surrounding the chamber was to hold the central chambered portion of the cairn together, and resist the weight and thrust of the <lome-shaped roof, the reason of the selection of large, square, and heavy blocks for its construction is at once apparent. As this circular wall evidently served an important structural purpose in the general plan of the building, there is no reason for assigning to it any symbolic signi- ficance; but, on the other hand, there is no reason why a symbolic in- tention and a stnictural purpose should not be fulfilled together. Indications of a similar circular wall appear in the long cairns (see fig. 3). It may be perhaps conjectured, as the Ormiegill cairn appears to comprehend a common chambered cairn of the circular type within the horned structure, that both the short and thelongcairns may have been originally ebambered circular cairns, similar to those described in my former paper,’ the horned structure having been subsequently added to them. It is true that, if the whole of the coruuted outside structure be removed from tbe Ormiegill cairn, there remains a chambered cairn of the circular type com])lele. But then the passage would be very much shorter, and the mass of the structure round the chamber very much smaller than in any known instance of a chambered circular cairn in the district. The fact also that these had all a double circular retaining w'all round the outside, favours the presumption that the double, and not the single, wall was the original external finish to the structure in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22460445_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
