- Location: Inverness IV2 5EU
- Opening times: 24 hours
- Entry: Free
- Access: Free onsite car parking
One of the joys of brown sign bagging is coming across a sign for a previously unknown attraction and then discovering that said attraction is something very special indeed. This happened after Annie and I had just left Culloden Battlefield and were beginning our journey south to Aviemore, our base of operations for the weekend. The sign in question pointed us in the direction of the Clava Cairns, which are only 300 yards east of the battlefield (although not connected to the battle, the cairns are part of the Culloden Muir Conservation Area) as the crow flies, and just a wee bit longer by car.
Clava Cairns are indeed special, so much so that I could scarcely believe I had never heard of them before, and there is nothing else like them in Britain. Annie was going to stay in the car as she doesn’t share my enthusiasm for ancient stones – I know, weird! – and also because it was so bitterly cold, but when she glanced out the window while parking the car I think she recognised that this was something different, something other than “the usual bunch of old stones”.
The Clava Cairns complex consists of the remains of three large burial cairns, each of which is surrounded by a stone circle. It is this feature that makes this site unique; Britain has its fair share of burial cairns and stone circles, but nowhere else is the former encircled by the latter. The cairns form a not-quite-straight line from north east to south west, and sit within an elm wood on a natural terrace overlooking the River Nairn. The whole site has almost an ethereal beauty, and looks so much like something out of mist-shrouded legend that one wouldn’t be surprised to see a unicorn wandering by. Okay, one would be extremely surprised, but the point is that a creature of myth wouldn’t look out of place in this fantasy setting. The location, incidentally, would have been a grassy plain when the cairns were constructed, with the trees only being introduced in the Victorian era. Those great Romantics apparently thought the trees would make the site more druidic and atmospheric, and I have to say I think they were bang on.
There was once a kind of magic here, however, of a sort derived from science and design rather than folklore. The two outer cairns each have a passageway facing southwest, and when the sun sets on the winter solstice it would shine down each passage and illuminate the burial chamber at the heart of the structures. The effect is somewhat lessened today as the cairns lost their corbelled roof untold centuries ago, but anyone wishing to see a similar effect in all its blazing glory can do so at Maeshowe in Orkney, which remains enclosed. The importance of the setting sun to the builders of the Clava Cairns is further signified by the fact that tallest stone in each circle is the one facing directly southwest.
Like Maeshowe, the cairns were originally believed to have been Neolithic but they have since been dated to the Neolithic’s next-door neighbour, the Bronze Age, specifically the Early Bronze Age or approximately 2,000 BCE. According to Historic Environment Scotland’s Statement of Significance concerning the site, archaeological evidence indicates that the whole cemetery was of a single design and was built over a relatively short period of time. We don’t know who the Clava builders were or who was buried here, but comparisons with similar cairns suggests that only one or two people were interred within each chamber, and that they must have been of great importance to the community. Another mystery is the central cairn, which differs from its neighbours in that it has no passageway, and was never roofed. This rules out its use as a burial chamber and although various alternatives have been offered – it was a place for prayer or it was where cremations took place – we will probably never know its purpose.
What is known is that this site, more fully known as Balnuaran of Clava, has been considered sacred by different cultures over thousands of years. It was in use for about 200 years and then abandoned, only for it to be used for further burials about 800 years later (the remains of a fourth cairn date from this time). About a quarter of a mile along the road is Milton of Clava, the site of a much more dilapidated cairn with one single remaining standing stone. Next door to this is the ruins of a Christian church thought to date from the early mediaeval period. Alas, I didn’t know about the Milton site until after I was back home or else I would certainly have visited it.
In terms of wow factor, I would rank Clava Cairns alongside such ‘Big Guns’ as Stonehenge and the Ring of Brodgar; it’s that special. Although I hadn’t heard of it before plenty of others had. In the year up to the March 2020 lockdown it received 111,000 visitors, some of whom were surely thanks to its use in a key scene in the hit television series Outlander. And although I am sure she will deny it now, even Annie was raving about Clava Cairns when we got to the pub that night.
Above left: The split stone at the south west cairn. Above right: The remains of the kerb cairn, which was built about 1,000 years after the others. The builders of this were clearly not as skilled as their ancestors.
Destination or Diversion?
In terms of time it takes to take in it is arguably just a diversion, but I think this site is worth any effort it takes to get there so I am calling it a must-see destination. The fact that Culloden is practically next door means that the two sites can be combined to make a fantastic afternoon out.
