Photo taken from Cairn T, looking northwest across Cairn S.

Main Page Guided Tours Introduction Loughcrew Megalithic art The Cailleach Cairns A, B and C Cairn D Cairns E, F and G Cairn H Cairns I, J and K Cairn L Cairns M, N and O Cairn R Cairn S Cairn T Cairn U Cairn V Cairn W Cairns X and Y

Cairn S A west-facing Y-shaped chamber, 4 - 5 meters long in a round cairn kerbed both with rounded and flat glacial boulders, 17m in diameter. Six orthostats were ornamented. Conwell described his excavations: 'Immediately outside the entrance of the passage was found a perfect specimen of a leafshaped arrowhead, in white flint, an inch and a half long, and nearly three-quarters of an inch broad.' Two septa of the passage 'were filled up to the height of eighteen inches with charred bones, broken into small fragments.' What appear from the descriptions to be two bone pins were found, one on top of the bones in each of these compartments. Cairn S. Coffey records that Rotherham searched for the stones of the right arm of the chamber in August 1892, but that he found no trace of them. 'On picking over the floor of the chambers in this cairn, in June 1892, we found a well-shaped stone pendant; several fragments of an urn, or urns, three small flakes of flint, showing evidence of fire; a short portion of what might have been a stout bone pin, with a longitudinal groove along one side - this object had been burnt almost to the consistency of porcelain; many pieces of burnt bones, and several human teeth, some strongly marked by fire, others showing no trace of fire. A portion of a bone pin was subsequently found by Mr. Rotherham.' (Herity, 1974).

Looking across the unusual Y-shaped chamber and out along the passage.