Geograph - photograph every grid square

For further details, and for other views, see NS2058 : Haylie Chambered Tomb and NS2058 : Haylie Chambered Tomb. For the setting of this tomb, see NS2058 : Approaching Haylie Chambered Tomb.

This is a Neolithic grave, of a kind known as a Clyde cairn. The present view is from the western end, where a chamber is still covered by a capstone. The large cairn ("Margaret's Law") that once covered the burial chamber is long gone.

Chambered tombs, such as this one, were communal graves for the farming communities of the early Neolithic period. The variety known as Clyde cairns vary considerably in their design. The entrance often communicates directly with the burial chamber, rather than being linked to it by a separate narrow passage. The burial chamber itself is often subdivided by transverse slabs that are set in the floor, but which do not extend upwards to more than half the height of the chamber. Some Clyde cairns had a curving facade, enclosing a forecourt area (see for example, NS4581 : The Lang Cairn: the facade). [For a definition of Clyde cairns, see the book "Introduction to British Prehistory" (Megaw and Simpson, 1979).]

Later in the Neolithic period, the building of such communal chambered tombs would give way to the creation of the great ceremonial sites, the open air temples (in the form of large ceremonial earthworks, stone circles, or timber circles), reflecting the spread of new beliefs and burial rites (on which, see the next paragraph). Later still, the remains of prominent individuals were interred in smaller (but still elaborate) tombs. [These developments (and many others) are described by Patrick Ashmore in the book "Neolithic and Bronze Age Scotland" (Historic Scotland, 1996).]

[Of the period of the great ceremonial earthworks, Ian Armit writes in "Celtic Scotland" (Historic Scotland, 2005): "The Neolithic period in Britain was devoid of signs of secular kings or high chiefs; instead, the highest status seems to have belonged to those who officiated at rites of communal ritual at which dispersed communities periodically came together."]