Torrylin Cairn

Description

Torrylin Cairn is the remains of a Neolithic chambered tomb. The cairn has been interfered with by stone robbing and later dumping of field stones and its original shape and size are uncertain. The chamber is 6.7 metres long by about 1.2 metres wide with each compartment about 1.4 metres long. Torrylin Cairn is of a type found across south-west Scotland known as a Clyde cairn, of which a better preserved example can be found at Carn Ban, about 3 miles to the northeast. The tomb would probably have had a crescent-shaped forecourt, framed by a façade of slender upright stones.

Antiquarian excavations in the 19th century uncovered an elongated burial chamber, divided into four compartments. Only the innermost compartment was intact. It contained the remains of six adults, a child and an infant. Beside them lay a flint tool and a fragment of pottery.