kids encyclopedia robot

Clava cairn facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Clava cairns are ancient stone structures built during the Bronze Age, a time when people started using bronze tools. They are a type of cairn, which is a pile of stones often used as a burial place. These special cairns are named after a group of three of them found at Balnuaran of Clava, near Inverness in Scotland.

About 50 Clava cairns have been found in the area around Inverness. They come in two main types:

  • Passage cairns: These are like a small stone tunnel (a passage) leading into a central room where people were buried. The roof of the room is made of stones that stick out, forming a dome shape. The entrance usually faces southwest, towards where the sun sets in midwinter.
  • Ring cairns: These are ring-shaped piles of stones that surround an open area. It seems like there was no way to get inside this open area from the outside.

Both types of Clava cairns are often surrounded by a stone circle, and a border of stones (called a kerb) usually runs around the base of the cairn. The standing stones in the circle are often tallest near the southwest entrance and get shorter on the opposite side.

When archaeologists have found burial remains in Clava cairns, they usually find only one or two bodies. Because the ring cairns didn't have an easy way to get inside, it suggests that these tombs were not meant for people to visit often or to add more burials over time, unlike some older Neolithic tombs.

The Balnuaran of Clava Site

Stones and Cairn
Clava cairns at Balnuaran of Clava

At the Balnuaran of Clava site itself, there are three Bronze Age cairns built close together in a line. The cairns at each end of the line are the passage grave type, meaning they have a passage leading to a burial chamber. The cairn in the middle is a ring cairn.

What makes the central ring cairn unique is that it has stone paths, like "rays," that spread out from the cairn to three of the standing stones in the circle.

Some of the stones used to build these cairns have special carvings called cup and ring marks. These mysterious marks were carved into the stones before they were used in the cairns.

The stones forming the kerb (the border around the base of the cairns) were carefully chosen. The stones are larger and have a redder color towards the southwest side, and they become smaller and whiter towards the northeast. All these details suggest that the cairns were planned and built very carefully, not just put together randomly.

Cup Marks Cairn
Cup marks on the northern cairn at Balnuaran of Clava

A scientist named Professor Alexander Thom studied the stone circle around the northern cairn at Balnuaran of Clava. He noticed that the circle was slightly egg-shaped and seemed to follow a complex geometric design. He believed that the builders might have used a standard unit of measurement, which he called the "Megalithic yard." While many agree that the shapes are complex, the idea of a specific "Megalithic yard" is still debated among experts.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Cairn de Clava para niños

kids search engine
Clava cairn Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.