Clava Cairns — The Ancient Codex

Clava Cairns, Highland — Photo: Bob Embleton / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

A Bronze Age funerary monument of the Inverness/Moray Firth communities; the three cairns and their stone circles appear to have been built as a single, deliberate design rather than added to over…

Clava Cairns is a tomb or burial place near Inverness, Highland, Scotland.

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

The name

'Clava' is the name of the locality (Balnuaran of Clava) that gives the whole cairn type its name; the site is the type site for ~50 similar 'Clava cairns' around Inverness and the Moray Firth.

History

Clava Cairns — historical view — Photo: Bewahrerderwerte / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

A Bronze Age funerary monument of the Inverness/Moray Firth communities; the three cairns and their stone circles appear to have been built as a single, deliberate design rather than added to over time.

People

Bronze Age communities of the Moray Firth

Builders; no named individuals (prehistoric)

Cultural influences

Prehistoric funerary and ritual tradition: passage graves and ring cairns enclosed by stone circles, with only one or two burials per tomb — suggesting the dead were not revisited.
Astronomical orientation: the passage-grave entrances and graded standing stones are aligned south-west towards the midwinter sunset — a designed feature of the type, not a later legend.

Connections

~50 Clava-type cairns around Inverness & the Moray Firth

Balnuaran of Clava is the type site for all of them
Culloden Battlefield

Immediately adjacent — the dominant visitor pairing (NTS visitor centre)

Discovery & excavation

Excavation and dating history not covered by the free type article.

What to look for

Three cairns in a line (NE passage grave, central ring cairn, SW passage grave), each ringed by a stone circle.
Kerb stones graded by size AND colour — larger and redder to the south-west, smaller and whiter to the north-east.
The central ring cairn's unique stone 'rays' — causeways radiating from the platform to three of the standing stones.
Cup-and-ring marked stones, carved earlier and reused in the cairn structures.

Plan your visit

Location: General area near Inverness, Highland
Nearest settlement: Inverness
Access: Open access
Terrain: Easy going
Best time: Open year-round; the south-west midwinter-sunset alignment is the atmospheric draw in late December.
What survives: All three cairns, their stone circles and graded kerbs survive well and are among the best-preserved Clava cairns.
Start point: Clava Cairns (Balnuaran of Clava) car park — On-site HES car park (parking available per HES); note the 17-tonne vehicle weight limit on the access road. Signposted from the B9091, 300 yards east of Culloden Battlefield.

Opening & admission

Free entry

Open year-round.

This is a sensitive site, so we show its general area only. Please use the official access information here rather than seeking out an independent route.

Opening times & tickets → HES prices/opening →HES getting-here →HES history →