File:Stockie Muir Chambered Cairn - geograph.org.uk - 1725415.jpg

English: Stockie Muir Chambered Cairn. See 336215 for David Robertson's earlier view of the cairn in its context; the long axis of the cairn is oriented east-west.

This Neolithic site is of the type known as a Clyde cairn. The book "Archaeology Around Glasgow" (2007, Susan Hothersall) devotes a section to this particular example; it relates that "Nimmo's 'History of Stirlingshire' (1880) mentions a cairn which is almost certainly identical to this one, and states that bones were found in the chamber at the end of the eighteenth century. After that the site seems to have gone unnoticed until 1948, when a brief description of it as a 'hitherto unidentified long cairn' was published".

It also mentions that lambing pens have been built into the stonework, and that a sheep-pen was created in the forecourt area (see below); it has therefore been subject to a great deal of disturbance, but it is still an impressive site.

Prominent in this photo is an upright stone at the right-hand (the eastern) end of the cairn; this is just one of a pair of portal stones, one of which has split in two; both are shown in 942422. That end of the cairn is wider and, as is typical of Clyde cairns, is concave in shape, enclosing a forecourt area in front of it; compare a similar example located not far away: 1081513.

The book "A Guide to Prehistoric Scotland" (1977, R.W.Feacham) says of the portal stones, "two large earthfast boulders protrude from the debris near the E. end, and the remains of a chamber about 13 ft. long by about 3 ft. wide can be distinguished a few feet west of them. One lintel stone remains in situ, others have fallen into the chamber"; as "Archaeology Around Glasgow" (cited above) notes, the chamber "extends for at least 3.5m, but it is choked with stones and any view of the walling is obscured by capstones".

See http://www.stirling.gov.uk/searchsmr?oid=486.02 for reports of an artefact, typical of the Iron Age, that was found at the eastern end; this find suggests that some of the cairn's material was reused during that much later period.