Chambered cairn
During the early Neolithic (4000–3300 BC) architectural forms are highly regionalised with timber and earth monuments predominating in the east and stone-chambered cairns in the west.
Along with the excavations of settlements such as Skara Brae, Links of Noltland, Barnhouse, Rinyo and Balfarg and the complex site at Ness of Brodgar these cairns provide important clues to the character of civilization in Scotland in the Neolithic.
[2] However the increasing use of cropmarks to identify Neolithic sites in lowland areas has tended to diminish the relative prominence of these cairns.
[3] In the early phases bones of numerous bodies are often found together and it has been argued that this suggests that in death at least, the status of individuals was played down.
The actual shape of the cairn varies from simple circular designs to elaborate 'forecourts' protruding from each end, creating what look like small amphitheatres.
They appear relatively late and only in Orkney[16] and it is not clear why the use of cairns continued in the north when their construction had largely ceased elsewhere in Scotland.
[36] The Bookan type is named after a cairn found to the north-west of the Ring of Brodgar in Orkney, which is now a dilapidated oval mound, about 16 metres in diameter.
An example is to be found on the uninhabited island of Vementry on the north side of the West Mainland, where it appears that the cairn may have originally been circular and its distinctive heel shape added as a secondary development, a process repeated elsewhere in Shetland.
[39] These passage graves are usually larger than the Shetland type and are round or have funnel-shaped forecourts, although a few are long cairns – perhaps originally circular but with later tails added.
[43][44] Bargrennan chambered cairns are a class of passage graves found only in south-west Scotland, in western Dumfries and Galloway and southern Ayrshire.
[45] In addition to the increasing prominence of individual burials,[6] during the Bronze Age regional differences in architecture in Scotland became more pronounced.
[52][53][54] Glebe cairn in Kilmartin Glen in Argyll dates from 1700 BC and has two stone cists inside one of which a jet necklace was found during 19th century excavations.
[55][56] There are numerous prehistoric sites in the vicinity including Nether Largie North cairn, which was entirely removed and rebuilt during excavations in 1930.
