The excavation of the chambered cairn at Glenvoidean, Isle of Bute

Abstract

NR 997705. Excavation of this multi-period Clyde cairn revealed a simple axial chamber within a round cairn, to which were added two lateral chambers set in an oval cairn. The whole was then enclosed in a trapezoidal cairn with a straight façade and a forecourt on which fires had been lit before the final blocking. No burials survived, but pottery included Beacharra and Rothesay style vessels. A 14C date was obtained from burnt material beneath a side-slab of the axial chamber. A two-tiered cist, containing an enlarged food vessel, and a medieval corn-drying kiln represent later insertions into the cairn. J G Scott discusses in detail the Rothesay style of Neolithic pottery. A R