The Grey Cairns of Camster in Caithness, Scotland

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On the return from Orkney Islands in 2013, I stopped at the Grey Cairns of Camster. They are located in Caithness in the highlands of Scotland. Scotland is rich in Neolithic history that has not been altered too much, and the Orkney Islands were filled with cairns and other very important sites. (You can read some of my posts on Skara Brae, Hoy Island, Kirkwall/Italian Chapel, Birsay, Cairns and Roussay by following the links.) We'd also just spent the morning at the Castle of Mey, which is on the mainland of Scotland and isn't too far from the ferry to Orkney.

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The Grey Cairns of Camster are located in Caithness in Scotland, an area that was once populated with people who created these Neolithic tombs (cairns). In those days, it was fertile farmland and probably had a large population, but as we learned in Orkney, something happened (we're not quite sure) to cause the climate to change and people left. The area became peat land in the Bronze Age.

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These cairns are over 5,000 years old, and they contain a long chamber (Camster Long) and a round cairn (Camster Round). They have been reconstructed.

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I was able to get inside the Round Cairn on its own, so I crawled inside. I did the same in Orkney in a couple of different cairns, and there's not much room. I literally had to lie down and crawl inside the opening, which consisted of a tunnel for a few feet (or yards) until I came to the chamber opening where there are partitions where the bones were kept.

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Once inside, I took a photograph out through the main entrance/exit. For those who dislike small places or those with mobility or health issues, crawling into a cairn is not recommended.

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Once inside, the tomb opened into the below. Round Cairn has a passage that is 6 metres long that I had to crawl through before the opening. As you can see in the above and below photographs, the earth is black. There was actually a foot of burnt bones and black ash along the floor of the cairn. It is thought that bodies were placed in a sitting position but without leg bones for some reason (1).

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I headed back out to the main cairn (Camster Long), which contains three entrances. Camster Long was thought to have consisted of two round cairns which were later joined by passages. The tomb contained human bones that were mixed with pig, oxen, deer, and horse bones. 

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Camster Long's doorways are fenced, but the fences are open for anyone to crawl inside. Unfortunately, I felt that these were too narrow for me to crawl through and I wished that I was a child again so I could crawl through the very long and narrow tunnel. The passage went on a lot further than the round cairn, so I did not attempt to crawl inside. I actually could not even see where the entrance to the tombs was to see exactly how far that I would have to crawl, but the passageway went on for several meters.

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The image below shows one of the entrances.

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The cairns do look picturesque against the rugged countryside.

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We had a good day to visit as the weather was nice at the cairns, but we'd just come from a rainstorm after Castle Mey, where we had light rain, and entered another one a couple of miles down the road. The Grey Cairns of Camster in Caithness can be visited and they are open to visitors. A large parking area is available, and the cairns can be seen from the road and are located along the road.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Cairns_of_Camster

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