Millin Bay Cairn

This complex late Neolithic burial monument appears now as an oval mound of sand, grass-grown, with a surrounding oval stone setting. Excavation in 1953 revealed a complicated sequence of structures under the mound. Earliest was a north-south stone wall, followed by a long stone cist west of the wall, with the bones of at least 15 individuals, neatly sorted and stacked. Around this and another small cist an oval of stone slabs was set, externally supported by a bank of shingle, and the oval area was filled with shingle and slabs. Outside the shingle bank seven more small cists were found, some with cremated bone, and the whole area was finally covered with the long mound of sand in the outer oval setting of stones. Many of the stones were decorated with pecked curvilinear and rectilinear motifs, suggesting some possible link with the passage tomb tradition. Gabriel Cooney points to the various ways in which human remains were treated: in the earlier phase bones were carefully sorted and stacked, while later bodies were cremated and deposited in small, individual cists. Finds were sparse but a late Neolithic date is suggested.

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