Dunchraigaig Cairn — The Ancient Codex

Dunchraigaig Cairn, Argyll and Bute — Photo: Otter / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Dunchraigaig is an Early Bronze Age round cairn, about 30 m across, set a little apart to the south-east of the famous 2 km linear cemetery of cairns that runs down Kilmartin Glen from Glebe Cairn to…

Prehistoric deer are carved on the underside of a capstone at Dunchraigaig Cairn — a find announced in 2021 and now reckoned the earliest known animal carvings in Scotland. The Early Bronze Age round cairn sits south-east of Kilmartin Glen’s linear cemetery of burial cairns, and was first excavated in 1864 by Mapleton and Greenwell.

What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.

The name

Dunchraigaig is a Gaelic name combining 'dun' (a fort or fortified mound/hill) with a 'craig/creag' (rock) element — broadly 'fort of the rock' or 'rocky stronghold'. This is a topographic place-name reading of the locality rather than evidence of a fort on the cairn itself.

History

Dunchraigaig Cairn — historical view — Photo: Gerd Eichmann / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

The cairn was excavated by R. J. Mapleton and William Greenwell in 1864, who found three cists. Most remarkable was the large south-east cist — dug into the ground, lined with drystone cobbled walls and capped by a massive stone — which held the remains of up to 10 individuals, some cremated and some not, together with a whetstone, a greenstone axe and a flint knife. Multiple burials in a single cist are very unusual for the Bronze Age, when cists were normally reserved for one person.

In May 2021 prehistoric deer carvings were discovered on the underside of the massive capstone of one of the cists — the earliest known animal carvings in Scotland and the first clear deer carvings of the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in the whole of the UK, thought to be 4,000–5,000 years old. The find overturned the assumption that British prehistoric rock art was mainly geometric and non-figurative.

People

Portrait: Photo: studio of Marshall Ward & Co. Unknown authorUnknown author. / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

William Greenwell

Antiquarian who (with R. J. Mapleton) excavated the cairn in 1864 and published the account of the cists and finds
R. J. Mapleton

Co-excavator in 1864; reported on the prehistoric remains around the Crinan Canal
Hamish Fenton

Discovered the prehistoric deer carvings by chance in 2021, noticing them by torchlight on the underside of a cist capstone
Dr Tertia Barnett

Principal Investigator of Scotland's Rock Art Project, who confirmed and contextualised the deer carvings
A. S. Henshall

Archaeologist (The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, 1972) who reassessed the large south cist, concluding it could not properly be classed as a chamber

Cultural influences

The 2021 deer carvings have reshaped understanding of British prehistoric rock art, showing that recognisable, anatomically detailed figurative animal art existed alongside the region's better-known cup-and-ring (geometric) tradition.
Kilmartin Glen holds one of the densest concentrations of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and carved rock surfaces in mainland Scotland; Dunchraigaig belongs to this exceptional ritual and funerary landscape.

Connections

Kilmartin Glen linear cairn cemetery

Dunchraigaig sits just south-east of the line of five cairns (Glebe, Nether Largie North, Mid and South, Ri Cruin) that runs down the glen
Glebe Cairn

Its large boulder-walled cist was noted as closely similar to the south cist at Dunchraigaig
Baluachraig and other Kilmartin rock art

Nearby cup-and-ring carved outcrops; Dunchraigaig's figurative deer carvings contrast with this geometric tradition
National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (now National Museums Scotland)

Holds the two bowl food vessels recovered from the central and east cists (accession HPO 11 and HPO 12)
Scotland's Rock Art Project (HES, with Edinburgh & Glasgow School of Art)

Recorded and confirmed the deer carvings using structured-light scanning and photogrammetry

Discovery & excavation

The cairn was opened by Mapleton and Greenwell in 1864, revealing three cists: a large drystone-lined south-east cist with the remains of up to ten people plus a whetstone, greenstone axe and flint knife; a central cist with a bowl food vessel (NMAS HPO 12), an inhumation in clay, burnt bone and flint; and a smaller east cist with a second bowl food vessel (NMAS HPO 11), burnt bone and flint. The whetstone, flint knife, pottery fragments and greenstone axe found among the cairn stones are now lost. The food vessels survive in the national collection. In 2021 Hamish Fenton's chance discovery of figurative deer carvings on a cist capstone added an entirely new dimension to the monument.

Finds now held at: National Museums Scotland (food vessels NMAS HPO 11 and HPO 12).

In culture

The 2021 deer-carving discovery drew international press coverage and an academic publication ('Revealing the Earliest Animal Engravings in Scotland: The Dunchraigaig Deer, Kilmartin', Cambridge Archaeological Journal), turning a long-known cairn into a touchstone for the study of British figurative rock art.

What to look for

The large south-east cist — dug into the ground, walled with drystone cobbling and capped by a massive stone; the burial place of up to ten individuals.
The deer carvings on the underside of a cist capstone — two antlered red deer and further (juvenile) animals; faint, and best seen with raking torchlight, as their discoverer did.
The broad, low round cairn (about 30 m across, 2.5 m high), heavily robbed on the south and east, with possible kerb boulders on the north edge.
The cairn's position set apart to the south-east of the main Kilmartin cairn line — a deliberate exception to the linear cemetery.

Plan your visit

Location: 56.1146°N · 5.4872°W
Nearest settlement: Kilmartin
Access: Open access
Terrain: Easy going
Parking: Parking available nearby — see the official getting-here page.
Start point: Kilmartin Glen · 1.25m south of Kilmartin off the A816.
Best time: Open year-round.
Start point: Kilmartin Glen roadside parking (A816, by Dunchraigaig Cairn) — Off-road parking immediately beside the cairn on the A816 in Kilmartin Glen, about 1.25 miles south of Kilmartin village.
Sat-nav: PA31 8RG