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Chambered Cairn
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The fieldgate at the south had barbed wire either side of the top and the way there is spongy - so go through the farm. A small area of stones exposed in the eastern side has no order apparent unless the top few are a real line.
Finally able to have a good look at the cut in the northern end (no compass so, mound very roughly aligned with long axis NS but probably only following [present] cliff edge). Not even superficially a quarry, and Orkney has some decidedly rum bits mapped as this. Slightly more circular than rectangular when you're in it. Not sure if the back is a continuous arc, more like angled stone lines either side. And if these are a wall still unsure if truly curved or straight walls distorted by erosion. Probably artefact of unrecorded prior excavation or else resulting from digging out circular feature such as a round cairn
What I thought to be a decorated stone is more likely to be natural. Behind the cut is the reported 15m depression that has led to its identification as a possible broch. Then I was on top of the cut and not far from this is an orthostat seen from the coast. And it is part of a feature highly reminiscent of that at the top end of the round cairn inserted into Head of Work, which Davidson and Henshall contend is likely the top of a chamber. even if this is incorrect it is definitely nothing a Brochaholic would accept as to do with a roundhouse. What you first note are two orthostats of a size on order with that at the top of the cut - maybe half-a-metre or so high - and three feet across the pair, with a jumble of flat stones of various sizes tumbled in front for about five feet and layered. If these are the backstops the chamber is roughly aligned EW and running at right angles to the long axis- so unlike the Head of Work in this respect too. On closer inspection there are further orthostats a couple of inches behind the 'backstops', though rather than something like packing these may be more of the backstops themselves heavily fragmented, indicating depth to my mind.
There's the top of a long rectangular stone that looks to form most of the southern edge, with a longitudinal split that indicated it goes down a fair piece - to the feature's floor perhaps. There are several other thick stones exposed, flat on the mound but partially buried nevertheless. Two of these solidly sunken near the eastern side, not flat but the tops of probable orthostats. These look to be at right angles to each other. Though they are exposed two or three inches away one from another they could well form a real pair under the earth.
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Posted by wideford
17th September 2009ce
Edited 19th September 2009ce
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