Most people only have one or two vacations a year between their many stressful working working months. It is best to make this holiday as extraordinary as possible. This vacation instead of doing something typical, go for something magical! Visit Inverness, a city on the northeast coast of Scotland where the River Ness meets the Moray Firth. Yes, the legendary place of the observation of the Loch Ness monster! It is also the only place to see the mystical ruins of Clava Cairns. This guarantees the most exciting and magical vacation!
The history of the Clava Cairns ruins and important information to know
The top five attractions in Inverness:
- Inverness Castle
- Inverness Botanic Gardens
- Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
- River Ness
- Clava Cairns
The Clava Cairns are a very well maintained collection of Bronze Age burial grounds consisting of passage tombs, circular cairns, edge cairns and standing stones in a fascinating setting. It is a fantastic example of the distant history of the Highlands of Scotland dating back around 4000 years! This spectacular collection of monuments is free to visit and open all year round! So no matter when you’re vacationing, this is the place to be!
For movie fans, this site was made especially famous in the show Foreign. In fact, this site was the complete inspiration for the show, all the mystery and medieval feeling that surrounded it led to the thrilling story of Foreign. Fans can roam the iconic stages of this show for free on any trip to Scotland. Join the fans in their crazy theories about this place covered in a blanket of strangers!
This is a picture perfect Bronze Age cemetery, wander around this site which includes a variety of passage tombs, eerie stone circles that encompass the graves, large standing stones and the remains of a chapel, all surrounded by a magnificent lush setting in the middle of elm trees and gentle hills. Amazingly, these cairns are the only ones in mainland Britain to be surrounded by stone circles. To this day, there is still no agreed idea how the stones got there in this way.
However, evidence suggests that each cairn contains no more than two burials, and all of this effort has gone into building the cemetery for a minimum number of burials. This suggests the idea that those buried here stand for the power and wealth of ancient Scotland.
This amazing place is still completely shrouded in historical mystery – one that begs you to question the lives of these Scottish ancestors and appreciate the practically ethereal beauty of the site.
The three parts of Clava Cairns
The main section, Blanauran de Clava, consists of three large burial cairns each surrounded by a circle of stones.
Two of the three cairns here have narrow passages through which visitors can enter to access the central burial chamber.
Between these cairns is a “border cairn” with an enclosed central burial chamber. If you look closely, you will be able to see cut and ring marks along the stones in addition to suns and moons. This only adds to the mystery of this magical site.
The second section of this site is a bit smaller, Milton of Clava, and it rests in a space directly across from the main section. This is the most viewed site in Outlander.
Milton de Clava consists of a single standing stone and the ruins of the medieval chapel which was built long after the cairns. There still isn’t much information about it or why it happened, but it’s an exciting and interesting thing to explore! There are also guides along this path to help answer any questions you may have.
The Cairns date from c. 2500 BCE, but the location is thought to have been used much earlier. This site was in continuous use for over 1000 years and evidence suggests that it was reused by communities, intermittently, until 770 CE as a center for rituals.
Due to the symbols that can be seen carved into the stones, there are suggestions that this is also a sacred site with astronomical significance. Some of the rituals performed here could have used different phases of the moon and stars in order to bring abundance to communities.
If you want to learn as much as possible about the history of this site, you have the option of booking guided tours of the location as well as other nearby areas. Explore not just Clava Cairns, but all Inverness has to offer with guided tours of the area. Discover the full history of this spectacular site in Scotland.
There is so much history and insight shrouded in mystery in this incredible and iconic place in Ireland, which will make it the highlight of your visit to Scotland. Be sure to include Inverness on your trip to Scotland and see the mystical Clava Cairns that inspired the Outlander show. Guaranteed to be the envy of all your Instagram followers!
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