The Clava Cairns is an ancient burial ground with three Bronze Age cairns, known in full as the “Prehistoric Burial Cairns of the Balnuaran of Clava”. This is an extremely well-preserved site for its age, dating back 4000 years.
The Clava Cairns are free to visit and open all year round. Perhaps the best time to see them is a sunset during the midwinter, when the stones align perfectly with the setting sun.
The central cairn is called a Ring Cairn, an enclosed ring-shaped stone structure with an inner chamber. The two outer cairns are known as Passage Graves. So-called because they include entrance passages, aligned to the south west, where the midwinter sun sets. A small number of bodies would have been laid in each chamber, probably of significant figures and leaders.
Around a thousand years later, the burial site was reused and three smaller monuments were added to it. Including a smaller ring of kerb stones near the central cairn.
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