Now I had time but there really were kie in the field. Tried hard to find any other access, including a very overgrown old track or ditch and down the old Windbrack track down to Ramly Geo, but even the old wires have been ultra-tightened now.
Can you call it a field visit when you have only viewed from the road with a high-powered digicamcorder. Answers please on a postcard ;-)
Approaching Birsay from Swannay not long past the Knowes of Lingro (possibly even along the same ridge, see vid.supra I think the term is) you see two small square wartime buildings on the hillside with a grassy hump between them and directly to their right a mound. This is the Knowe of Crustan. You can easily find a mound that seems to be another fragment of this as you scan along the horizon.
Traditionally the last resting place of St.Magnus body on the way from Egilsay to Birsay was on the Crustan ridge - Crustan appears to mean 'cross stone', so another Corse)
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY22NE 5 at HY27472897 is a turf-covered barrow of 35' diameter called the Knowe of Crustan. It sits high on a ridge and used to have a standing stone several feet tall on top of it, immediately bringing to mind the Stanerandy Tumulus not that far away. There is some damage, perhaps from the 1852 excavation whose E-W trench produced burnt bones in what is described as a "common cell". Two wartime buildings have changed its appearance somewhat.
Now I had time but there really were kie in the field. Tried hard to find any other access, including a very overgrown old track or ditch and down the old Windbreck track down to Ramly Geo, but even the old wires have been ultra-tightened now. I think archaeologists should hire animals, because in those few places in Orkney I see "Beware of the Bull" there is always O.S. 1:25,000 archaeology, even if including WWII stuff ;-)
APRIL 2005 I considered for a moment paying a visit, I'm no scared of cows and calves me, but had my targets to reach still. Beyond the reported Crustan mound is what looks to be a yet smaller one. This looks very low in comparison with the other two mounds, but much more interesting because of the stones you see in my photo, either scattered over it or protruding through, possibly both. It played hide-and-seek like Mittens, only visible from certain spots along the road. Really need someone in the locality to investigate further as to age and nature of this.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY22NE 5 for the Knowe of Crustan includes at HY27532906 110m SE along the same ridge a turf-covered mound about 12m across and 1m high that is likely to be another barrow.
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