The Clava Cairns, also known as the Balnuaran of Clava, are a nest of three mysterious structures located halfway between Cawdor Castle and the infamous Culloden battlefield. Little has been learned about the genesis of the structures through scientific inquiry, leaving them as intriguing testament to the enigmatic existence of Scotland's early inhabitants.
Clava Cairns from late Neolithic Period. This Ring Cairn was constructed without an entrance or passageway. Wikimedia Commons, Elliott Simpson.
Characteristics of Clava Cairns
The site's main features are what appear to be three 50-foot-diameter circular rock piles that are surrounded by standing stones.
A short passageway leads to the center of two of the three cairns, which are referred to as "passage cairns" and are composed of round mounds of stones stacked to a maximum height of 10 feet.
Pathway Cairn
South-West Passage Cairn. On Winter Solstice the setting sun would illuminate the chamber. Wikimedia Commons, Elliott Simpson.
There is a "ring cairn" in between the passage cairns that is built similarly to the other two but does not have an entrance other than by scaling the stone walls themselves.
Ring Cairn
Ring cairn. Passage cairn and standing stones are in the background.
Strange Stone Cupped
The existence of what are referred to as "cup marks" is a perplexing but typical feature of the cairns. Many of the stones have intentional circular indentations chipped onto their surface. Scholars continue to debate the function of these circular engravings, much as they do with the cairns themselves. It is impossible to determine whether the cup markings in the stones were carved at the same time as the cairns were constructed. Boulders that had previously been cut by an even earlier culture may have been utilised by the builders.
Cup Marks Cairn
Cup marks in a passage-type Clava cairn. Public domain.
Theories on the Site's Goals
The three cairns are constructed from reddish-colored rocks. The importance of this stone selection is no longer understood, though. The positioning of three lines of stones that extend from the ring cairn to nearby standing stones is another intriguing aspect of the structure. These slightly elevated offshoots have no recognized function or connotation.
Festivals or Burials of People
The purpose of the cairns' construction remains a mystery. They might have served as cemeteries or as locations for religious celebrations. Unfortunately, little has been learned from local excavations. There were some human remains and a small amount of cremation evidence found during digs in 1828 and 1858. There aren't enough corpses for a cemetery in any size village. Some academics, however, were still hesitant to abandon the burial site notion. They proposed that the buildings were not used to bury commoners. They were only given to a select few people who were seen to be particularly deserving for some reason. According to other archaeologists, the fact that there are so few bones may be because fewer people have been offered as sacrifices, as shown by the small number of human remains.
The 1828 excavation also uncovered pottery pieces from the late Bronze Age. The majority of academics concur that the cairns were built between 2000 and 1500 BCE.
Winter Solstice Sun Alignment
Some scholars have proposed that the cairns were utilized for astronomical purposes, similar to other enigmatic man-made structures like Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids. For instance, it appears that the Clava Cairn site may have served as a focal point for star maps. Additionally, a research team recently found that on the winter solstice, the sun illuminated the route openings at dusk. A series of roughly 50 planet-aligned cairns in the Inverness-Nairn Valley includes these three Clava cairns as well as others.
One of the best specimens of prehistoric architecture is still the Clava cairns. As a result, they are now the norm for classifying related structures. Due to their resemblance to the original three constructions, more than 30 cairns discovered along the rivers Enrick, Beauly, and Spey are also referred to as "Clava cairns"; to this day, all of them continue to confound academics and amateur enthusiasts.
