Clava cairn

They fall into two sub-types, one typically consisting of a corbelled passage grave with a single burial chamber linked to the entrance by a short passage and covered with a cairn of stones, with the entrances oriented south west towards midwinter sunset.

In the other sub-type an annular ring cairn encloses an apparently unroofed area with no formal means of access from the outside.

When Clava-type tombs still contained burial remains, only one or two bodies appear to have been buried in each, and the lack of access to the second sub-type suggests that there was no intention of re-visiting the dead or communally adding future burials as had been the case with Neolithic cairn tombs.

At Balnuaran of Clava itself there is a group of three Bronze Age cairns which lie close together in a line running north east to south west.

The cairns incorporate cup and ring mark stones, carved before they were built into the structures.