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There is a car park just off the A75, with a
half mile walk up to the tombs. There is also a
car park up at the tombs, as seen in the image
top. It is a single lane road up to the tombs
with passing places.
These tombs are believed to have been for
farming communities that lived here between
6000 and 4000 years back. The two tombs are
similar, but the first one is more elaborate,
with a line of standing stones.
The chambers of both tombs have an inner and
outer compartment. It is believed the inner
chambers were the original ones. The outer
chambers would have been added at a later
date.
The tombs are fairly large, with Cairnholy I
being over 100 feet long, with many people
buried here over a few centuries.
1949 - the tombs were excavated, but the
bones had dissolved leaving little evidence of
who was buried here.
A number of items were found in the tombs,
including an axe made of jadeite stone in the
outer chamber of Cairnholy I. This is a hard
green stone imported from the Alps, so
indicated some of the people buried here were
powerful and wealthy.
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