Clava Cairns

NE Passage Cairn - Clava

The remarkable series of Cairns at Balnuaran of Clava are one of the finest prehistoric monuments in the Highlands. They occupy a beautiful wooded site a few miles east of Inverness, close to Culloden battlefield.

The oldest of the cairns here are the central ring cairn and the two impressive passage grave cairns, which date from around 2000 B.C., in the Bronze Age. There are many such cairns in the area, with the Corrimony Chambered Cairn between Loch Ness and Glen Affric, together with these, being the best preserved.

SW Passage Cairn - Clava

The cairns were basically a prehistoric cemetary. Recent excavations have suggested that each cairn was used for burials for only a very short time and a small number of bodies, possibly just one, and that the other cairns on the site were built around 1000 years later when the area was once again being used as a cemetary. Each of the passage graves has a tunnel through the wall of stones leading to an inner chamber, with carved markings inside; and each is surrounded by a stone circle. The central ring cairn is surrounded instead by stone-built radiating causeways.

View across the site

In Victorian times the cairns were thought to have been constructed by Druids and attracted Romantics; it was around this time that the fine trees were planted. The cairns have parking alongside, and are free to visit.