A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable (usually stone) chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves.

Typically, the chamber is larger than a cist, and will contain a larger number of interments, which are either excarnated bones or inhumations (cremations). Most were situated near a settlement, and served as that community's "graveyard".

Scotland has a particularly large number of chambered cairns, many of radically different type. Because of the lack of other remains (the only other significant remains we have are hut circles and field systems), they are perhaps the most important clue we have to what civilization in Scotland was like in the Neolithic. Here is a short description of each type as the classification currently stands:

The Clyde-Carlingford type are to be found in northern and western Ireland and in mostly southwestern Scotland. Lacking a significant passage, they are a form of gallery grave. The very basic burial chamber is normally located at one end of the cairn, while a roofless, semi-circular forecourt at the entrance provided access from the outside (although the entrance was usually blocked), and gives this type of chambered cairn its alternate name of court tomb or court cairn. They are generally considered to be the earliest in Scotland, dating perhaps to as early as 4000 BCE, and probably spread to Scotland from Ireland.