Dunchraigaig Cairn

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland says parking at the site is available but publishes no charge or free statement, so the status is recorded as unknown; reviewers describe a small free car park across the A816 from the cairn. Take care crossing the main road.

Driving pin: the Dunchraigaig Cairn car park, 57 m east-north-east of Historic Scotland's own pin on the cairn, about 1.25 miles south of Kilmartin off the A816. The same car park serves Baluachraig Rock Art. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Dunchraigaig Cairn lies under tall trees on a shaded terrace beside the A816 at the south end of Kilmartin Glen, a large round Bronze Age burial cairn about 4,000 years old and about 30 metres across. Excavations in the 1800s found three stone cists. One held only cremated bone, another a body laid full length on its cover slab with cremated bones inside and a crouched burial below. The third, capped by a massive slab nearly four metres long that can still be seen at the edge of the mound, held the remains of up to ten people, rare for a single Bronze Age cist. In 2021 a visitor, Hamish Fenton, noticed carvings under the capstone that proved to be Scotland's earliest known animal carvings: two male red deer with full antlers, thought to be 4,000 to 5,000 years old. Baluachraig rock art and the Ballymeanoch standing stones are each a short walk away. A small car park lies directly across the A816.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Dunchraigaig CairnOpen all year; an unstaffed open site, no hours published

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'Dunchraigaig Cairn is free to visit and is open year-round.' No hours, closures or notices on 20 October 2026; not on Historic Scotland's closures page. Historic Scotland's directory lists it as 'Kilmartin Glen: Dunchraigaig Cairn'.

The site sits on working farmland, so follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code; strong footwear is recommended. The cairn is just off the road on a tree-covered terrace, and paths lead on to Baluachraig Rock Art and the Ballymeanoch standing stones, each 5 to 10 minutes away. No toilets or other facilities.

Photo: The grassy mound of Dunchraigaig Cairn with the large capstone of a cist at its foot and a spread of cairn stones under tall trees. Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burial_mound,_Dunchraigaig_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2571314.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.