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West Town is a Bronze Age ring cairn located in Inverness-shire, Scotland, approximately 240 metres south-west of West Town itself. Ring cairns are distinctive funerary monuments consisting of a circular bank of stones with a central depression or hollow, typically dating to the Bronze Age. This particular example stands on bedrock of Middle Old Red Sandstone, laid down during the Middle Devonian period and comprising conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. The solid geological foundation would have provided stable ground for construction and has helped preserve the monument through millennia.
The cairn sits within a landscape shaped by ancient rock formations, with the varied sandstone and siltstone geology underlying the Inverness-shire moorland. Ring cairns like this one served as ritual monuments and burial places for Bronze Age communities, reflecting their beliefs about the treatment of the dead and the importance of permanent, visible markers in the landscape.
The monument is protected by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled ancient monument under reference SM11551, ensuring its preservation for future study and public understanding of Scotland's Bronze Age heritage.
West Town, ring cairn 240m SW of is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM11551. View the official record →
West Town is a Bronze Age ring cairn located in Inverness-shire, Scotland, approximately 240 metres south-west of West Town itself. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM11551.
West Town, ring cairn 240m SW of dates from the bronze age period, and is classified as a ring cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
West Town, ring cairn 240m SW of is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM11551.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Ruthven, crannog 610m NNE of (5.3 km), Tom Buidhe, enclosure 480m NNE of Ruthven (5.4 km), Dhuallow, cairn 195m E of (6.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of West Town, ring cairn 240m SW of's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
West Town, ring cairn 240m SW of stands on Middle Old Red Sandstone (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.