The Clava cairn is a type of Bronze Age tomb with a circular shape, named after the group of three cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, located east of Inverness in Scotland. There are about 50 cairns of this type in the area around Inverness.

These cairns are divided into two types. One type includes a passage grave with a single burial chamber connected to the entrance by a short passage. This chamber is covered by a pile of stones, and the entrance faces southwest, toward the midwinter sunset. The other type consists of a circular stone ring surrounding an open area with no clear entrance.

Both types are surrounded by a stone circle, and a row of stones, called a kerb, often runs around the cairn. The standing stones vary in height, with the tallest stones positioned at the southwest entrance and the shortest stones directly opposite them.

When these tombs still contained remains, only one or two bodies were buried in each. The lack of access to the second type suggests that people did not plan to return to the tombs or add more burials later, unlike some earlier Neolithic tombs.

Balnuaran of Clava

At Balnuaran of Clava, there is a group of three Bronze Age cairns arranged in a line from northeast to southwest. These tombs serve as the main example for about 50 similar cairns found near Inverness and the Moray Firth. The tombs at both ends are a type called passage graves. The middle cairn is a type called a ring cairn and has unique stone paths or causeways forming "rays" that spread out from the platform around the kerbs to three standing stones. The cairns include stones with cup and ring marks, which were carved before being placed in the structures. The kerb stones are sorted by size and chosen for their color, with larger and redder stones on the southwest side and smaller and whiter stones on the northeast side. All these features suggest they were built as part of a planned design rather than added randomly.