wideford

This time young kie present so kept out to avoid the curious creatures trampling the evidence as they followed (as is their wont)

Two videos from the weekend, the first a minute long and 11Mb, the second 11mns and just under 240Mb (like other fileshares the free download times look to be based on dial-up) :
rapidshare.com/files/457098362/apex_Head_of_Work.wmv – basically the top of the round cairn, rapidshare.com/files/457096748/Head_of_Work.wmv – the whole thing walked around

Take the road that lies west of the Loch of Bosquoy that runs from opposite the Shunan lochans past the Merkister Hotel to end near the Harray post office. Approaching the bend at Mill Cottage looking due south the broch lies on a promontory sticking west into the Loch of Harray.

Several weeks ago taking the Work road I saw one or more folk [bobble-hatted] acting suspiciously over on the scheduled monument with some kind of structure on top with them. They were still there when I turned back, the light starting to fade. Last week I finally went to the headland and a new profile was very evident, the long cairn with the round cairn above that and then a new pimple.on top. Once there I could see that someone had been messing with the recorded chamber and the ‘structure’ was the pimple. This profile results from a rigid stacking of the stone slabs above the back of the chamber, though I cannot tell if this includes slabs that were within the chamber before. I know that snow causes damage but the north side may have been investigated too, to a lesser extent, as amongst other things there is an enlarged/new exposure. Hopefully the visitors were either here only a day or are following some official program.

In the 1930’s Marwick spotted settlement remains at the Point of Quoyelsh. During visits in 1989-1990 D.Lynn and B.Bell found pottery and stone finds there, with a body sherd giving the site a date likely to be no later than the Iron Age, and found the surviving corner of a (?domestic) structure (RCAHMS NMRS record no.HY20NE 73 ). Dave describes the site as about two-thirds of the way up a cliff section below a slight surface rise, adding that there is also grassed mound set back from the cliff edge nearby. From my photos he believes that the deeper masonry [closeup 1] is ‘newly’ exposed and suggestive of better survival than originally thought. Along the southern side of the Point itself there may be other archaeological traces as by the base there is a long white something I only spotted on a photo that looks good for Marwick’s find – could be mediaeval like Head of Houton carved stone or there is a slim possibilty that it came from White House around the corner as I have known whole sections of brick wall to be washed up on the shore in Orkney. A little further north along this half of the Bay of Navershaw another settlement is partly exposed cliffside (HY20NE 24 at HY268092 probably Neolithic) but I did not know this at the time

Armed with the new information I walked the Grimeston road, which is basically a broad U-shape. Coming up the northern leg you come to a T-junction. Here a short stretch of road goes north to the Stoneyhill Road. At the end of it is the field of the ‘Feolquoy’ mounds with another such to its north and that containing the Staney Hill long cairn to thats north. The field above this short piece [i.e to its east] has the Staney Hill standing stone itself. At this junction the main portion of Henge is in the field on the right, though of course this would have been one with the standing stone field before the’modern’ road. In the near (SW) corner I could see a very well defined feature, a circular bank not many yards across around a flat depression full up with flat stones or slabs. When you are almost at the highest point of Staney Hill there is a very large curving ridge running across, with the supposed entrance a few yards wide clear to see. It is most definitely the line of an old track. Which isn’t to say that this could not have been placed along a causeway which its construction destroyed. Turn your eyes to the other side of the road and at the highest point there is a distinct low mound that Dave said would originally have been the place to which all eyes were drawn, rather than the common idea that such heights are for looking down on folk and other sites. Looking downhill/W I could now make out another ridge. This is lower to the ground. Which is another reason to suspect we are dealing with natural features, for one would expect this to be the henge’s higher standing section of bank (as with, say, the Hillhead enclosure). The whole of the Staney Hill and Grimeston area is covered with the likes of surviving and dead burns, rocky outcrops, marshy bits. Which would explain why the tracks shown in 1882 are very far from straight. Unfortunately there were several pockets of sheep preventing my closer viewing of the uphill part. Also if there is archaeology here it would probably need pointing out by those with the knowledge. At least I now know why there were so few photos – even my sites have to have something to them ! I did, however, investigate the [as it were] ‘ringwork’. Definitely in need of a tidy up. As well as the slabs a lot of the central depression is taken up by a part-buried piece of modern machinery. There are a few visible voids, including one I could see inside. Kneeling down for a closer look in this latter there is about a foot of space into which a short piece of the machinery’s cable projects. There was a possible large stone forming the bottom. Sticking my hand inside I unprofessionally tried to lift this. It broke in two and seems to be simply a clump of earth.
On another visit looking from a point S of Henge across from the south bit of road I could see the land distinctly drop off, and this edge is a very smooth curve visible on the 1:25,000 as a contour line. Roughly West of of Henge is the Staney Hill standing stone. Then there is that ‘viewpoint’ mound, maybe a couple of feet high. Come clockwise and further down is where Andrew extracted a piece of portable art from ploughsoil by the layby, the Grimeston Girlie themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/90302.jpg having similarities to the Westray Wifie found this year. Unless O.A.S. publishes the chap’s doctoral thesis we shall probably hear no more of Henge’s real archaeology as an SMR seems unlikely.

The Tingwall mound is in the form of a figure-of-eight or else two mounds of disparate sizes have been joined together, the larger and more mutilated at the west end and the smaller at the east by the farm. Using the 1st O.S. to look at the brochs from Dishero to Burgar you find the broch depicted as not quite circular except for the east end of this mound where its circle is a geometric circle. Which seemed strange. Then I had reason to ponder whether the sluice behind had been made using stones from the broch and the light went on – the sluice makes the burn behind a millstream and so this is a strong candidate for being a mill mound. Which isn’t to say that it had no prior use [unless the mound had been constructed specifically for the mill]. The early map isn’t as detailed as that for Dishero, showing a bank occupying the inside of the west circle’s western half and orthostats on the south periphery (seven shown).
On a modern-day aerial view [192.com IIRC] this is generally confirmed, with little appearing at the east quadrant and the stones part of the plant-covered ditch obscuring it from a roadside view. The view from above shows the large irregular pit seen roadside as coming from the south edge of the circle, a little right of centre, up to the broch tower marks with a small circle where it contacts. There are several pits inside the broch tower area. These are probably from antiquarian investigations. To my mind these would post-date the 1880 survey or more detail would be shown on the 1st O.S. (like Dishero). The photo shows a circular ditch on the west side and inside this the broch tower wall in the W-N quadrant with what appears to be an out-turning at the north end, perhaps a gateway or the east side of an external cell. I imagine the ditch to be is connected to the substantial rampart fragment referred to in the NMRS. Virtually nothing can be seen at the east side of the broch circle over or from there to the mill-mound.
All of the foregoing I learned after this particular visit. Coming from the harbour I first came to the eastern end. Looked across this end from the east it is the south side that has been touched by man, at the base on the left what appears to be a low bank across this end, then an apparently manufactured curve to the top and an equally low rise or foundation from whose north side the mound slopes gradually down seemingly naturally. To the right of the ‘foundation’ you can see the top of the broch in the distance. Along the side facing the road a few stones of different sizes are exposed, though truth to tell if they have a pattern it is a line rather than a curve. Even in winter the gouge of a ditch cutting in front of the west end and up into this end of the mound like a stairway to heaven is heavily fringed with dock. Exposed in the cut above are a mix of small thin slabs and blocks. All are still where placed by man, but only in one spot are you priveleged to see a tiny section of plain to see walling. This horizontal block with a slab coming onto it I had previously believed to be part of a small passage entrance but later close inspection reveals a vertical surface behind and below the slab, probably one block and part of another – it feels different from the rest and I would like to think this is the outer face of the broch tower wall.
Up at the crossroads the west end presents the multiple levels now familiar from Dishero. After entering the field I am about halfway to the mound when to my surprise I see a deep ditch cut into the ground by this end just beyond a sharp bend in the burn, and the broch sits on the other side. Up on the mound the bank/s on this end are easier to see. From the top it is more obvious how regular the east end is and there may be another bank between. Spot another interesting thing to my left as I look past a pit to the mound (or top of the mound)’s edge, a broad but very shallow concave curve and what might be slight bumps at either end. Could this be an entranceway ? And if so to the broch or something else ?? I was also surprised by how far back the big ‘hole’ at the south side was from the central broch tump. Beneath the plants at the bottom are some larger stones/slabs. Not sure if these are in situ or whether part of flooring if so. On the west side are fewer stones but there is that ‘wall’. On the east side there is more of a continuity though after several metres it does broaden out suddenly, might be another chamber or whatever. Further down near the lip of the ‘hole’ on this side is something definitely different, a saw-edged orthostat (just visible from the road with magnification) with its face towards me. More like a tomb than broch – though it is considered that this is not a ‘greenfield site’, however the arrow is considered to run forward to Viking times rather from the IA back. Lastly I walked over the the other end down a shallow slope, still above ground level, then up more steeply. Nothing to add to my first observation about the seaward end.

At the south end of the Gorseness road is the sign for the Rendall Doocot. Follow the signs to this and the Knowe of Dishero ‘mound enclosure’ can be seen on the coast from the track that runs from the Hall of Rendall to the South Ettit graveyard [the slabs by a water trough are froman empty cist excavated in 1969]. The site has a new fence around it and no easy access evident – if there had been more time I would have snuck under as there looks to be no ground-level wire. Coming from the end facing the 1738 kiryard I can make out one big broad stone about halfway up that looks to be in a depression I think lies just outside the broch tower. On the side facing the old manse is a broad ditch that seems quite deep and heads for the cliff-edge. It is from this direction that you can make out the various levels i.e. the ditch, the outer broch, and the broch tower [possibly a fourth can be made out]. From here through the clifftop undergrowth you can see what looks to be a mix betwen a sea-wall and a structure back against the cliff, age unknown.

From the A966 head down towards Tingwall pier but take the LH road at the junction before this. By Midland looking to the near shore there is a long mound with a much smaller one a distance to its left. These are the Knowe of Midgarth (and cairn) and the Midland tumulus. There’s only a field or two between shore and road but I was on a tight schedule because of the time of year and having already spent ages at Tingwall. Also all I saw through binoculars was sere grass and turf – if I had seen the prominent stonework the camera saw and this had been summer I would have been in like a shot.

Coming up on the road from south to Stem Howe with a low autumn sun delineating the various shapes made by the knowes and picking out features on them. The whole is so much sculpted that it is no longer a moraine, if ever it was. Seem to be various levels too. Thought this to be only the upper part but this is an ilusion of time passing sentence on the steeper bits. Partway up the southern edge where it nears the the road the harsh sunlight brings into relief a low ridge, only a couple of feet across a few inches high, forming an edge to the mound as if to stop visitors falling unawares. This looks to stop just where the most man-alters bit starts. I notice it begins at the top end of a twisted rectangular hollow or depression, which doesn’t look to be from antiquarian investigation, though possibly a long scoop.

September 7th about one o’clock. Coming down Wasdale road from N. Past the traditional graveyard side [marked by a hut] the loch opens out and the bright overhead sun picks out figures in the loch, two (?conjoined) circles of dissimilar sizes on the side near the road and a long ?ellipse towards the other side and a little further north. First impression is that the gale is whipping waves that flush underlying vegeatation up to reflect underlying archaeology. But the camera later reveals that the plnts are actually a myriad small stones. Also the circles have a clear central space, so annular rings I suggest. An archaeo tells me thay in Skye exceptional conditions can bring crannogs into view. Alternately these have been mooted as fish traps of unknown age.
I have always thought that there should be a Neolithic settlement below Howe Harper, as with the Cuween and Wideford Hill Cairns. Just remembered that in a field S/SW of the loch thre is what could well be a dry version of the lochbed sites, after a prolonged period of rain it is marked by a shallow pool.

August 24th 2010
Went to Brodgar day before end of dig as though they have made lovely discoveries on last days much will be be going back under black plastic early on the day. Past Bridgend went around the back of the Kokna-Cumming mound to come upon the Lesser Wall of Brodgar from behind by a gentler slope. Glad they have realised that this is a late feature as otherwise what would one make of the Brodgar standing stone pair straddling its view eastwards and the tomb outside its supposed remit. To me the point of it is to face the Staneyhill Tomb – I forget what they call it in political science but it is like gardeners “borrowing a view” by bringing a further vista into the visitor’s eyeline. What does this mean for the hypothesis that the Greater Wall of Brodgar was meant to form a northern boundary to the whole Ness assemblage ? It doesn’t seem to have any similar alignment [and perhaps too thick to find a statistically valid one anyhow] but is it equally late, performing a non-liminal function yet to be identified. At the bottom of the Lesser Wall’s southern side there is now a pavement just under the level of the Wall base by the remains of what is to my eye another wall at a slight angle to the later Wall. Near the bottom of the Wall it looks to me as if there are what is left of two cruder walls parallel to one another over and at right angles to my putative earlier wall, and hence the pavement below. To my dismay the area of trench behind the Wall has still not been dug below the level of its top. Probably a “health and safety” thing. Here there are two arcs of collapsed wall, perhaps an inner and outer section. Not that this necessarily means one or both had not been straight when still standing. Oh, I can barely wait for their investigation. And then maybe sometime they can go down to the Wall base here to see if the Lesser Wall might be part of some other structure yet.
On to the main Ness of Brodgar site a bit of height not only gains you perspective but also frees you of photographing beige stone against beige stone and having to decipher it later ! First up is the new to this season next-to-roadside observation platform with a long ramp for wheelchair access. Then there are the large spoil heaps by the northern and western sides, as long as you don’t mind the shifting soil underfoot in places. The space between Lochview and the dig is too smaa for anything but a photographic tower for the bosses, so you can’t use that. It amazes me that at first glance it all looks practically the same as last time. Up on the platform on this side of the site the bulk is taken up by Structure 10 on your left with its, ahem, standing stone. No work is ongoing in the ‘cathedral’ now. In front of the platform’s near end Structure 8 is divine. Along the western edge are what I see as three sub-square interior cells but on plan I see are duplicated on the opposite side, forming two rectangular and one long oval sub-divisions of the whole. This is basically how it has looked since last year. But on my third visit of the season exterior to the northern wall at the trenches edge are (I think) three small strucures that make you think of mini-roundhouses. All this mixing of linear and circular or sub-circular forms throughout the site strike me as less a striving for a practical form [and/or effective ritual space] and more the search for an artistic vision, squaring the circle to put the art into architecture. Very nice, whatever. Next is the small Structure 7, pinned between 8 and the Structure 1+9 combo.
The latter can be seen from the first spoil heap. Up here the first thing you spot is a large circular wall arc [?9 – the structure plan on Orkneyjar is from the season’s start] in front of which work has been going on in a linear structure apparently leading up and terminating before it with what I take to be either a wide facade (pehaps fronting a courtyard entrance) or two flanking ?guard-cells. Looking left from this by the edge of the trench is a short length of low parallel orthostats that catch my eye but have been left behind for now.
From the top of the next spoil heap is a clear view of Structure 1, a large structure (oval or semi figure-of-eight) with rectangular niches or cells scattered along the interior edge. These are formed by the drystane walling (but multi-coloured) and tall thin orthostats. Near the trench edge to the right a double wall or pair of walls with pavement between them is nicely exposed. At the far end of the mound I look south to Structure 12, a large clean-looking oval with a couple of long cells. On my previous visit I only noticed the one nearest the spoil heap after I got back from an image taken near Lochview. That nearest the road looked as if someone had taken the Great Wall of Brodgar and removed the flesh to leave a rectangular skin.
The space between 12 and 10, or in 10, has three or four standing stones. I think they are roughly in a square. It is remarkable how many odd stones are scattered about the site, different in colour (red maks a change from beige) or shape (proper looking standing stones or blocky forms mostly). Not too much rhyme or reason for the most part, so I am thinking this is just a monumental version of picking up a pebble on a beach and taking it home.
All the above is only how I have this eclectic site in my mind’s eye. Carefully as they excavate still there are different stages in any season’s dig, structure’s co-mingle and turn out to be part of other’s. During an extended period of experimentation you can’t even sort features out by materials used. And any single structure can be such a glorious mix of drystane walls, slabs, orthostats and standing stones, along with what I might call exhibition pieces.
By the time I am done with all three cameras there are still twenty minutes until the next tour and I give a moment’s thought to tagging along for the display of new finds at its end. You are never sure what will be displayed or whether you will be able to take piccies, the latter depends on the group more than the presenter.

On the one hand there is a viewing platform at the east side of the dig, on the other a light fence has started going up around the dig itself. Finally the Lesser Wall is exposed again. They think they have reached the bottom, where there is a fine paved area revealed on the south side i.e. outside the archaeologists gargantuan temenos. Looking along the wall between the standing stone pair with my new super-duper camera I can confirm a definite alignment with the Staney Hill Tomb [there may be another site between them and some tumuli beyond but I shall stay with the certain]

To save a wee bitty on the legs take the 9A bus from Kirkwall Travel Centre to the Sunnybank Road where the new route starts – still climbing though

If they want to know how the slate roof was put together they could do worse than look at the farm buildings. Not the usual form or fashion but tall trapezoid slates laid in even more elongated trapezoid columns with narrow and wide ends alternating along the roof.

Before visiting the site Orkneyjar’s Ness of Brodgar weblong has essential links to fuly detailed diagrams of the 2010 trenches and 2010 structures

NMRS record no. HY21SE 19 is a small mound of earth and stones on the SE slope of the hill between the Ring of brodgar and Bookan farm which has/had a stone setting around the base. Its present dimensions of ~8m diameter by 0.6m high accords well with those of 27’ diameter and 18” high reported in 1946, meaning little or no erosion has happened since.
It can be seen by the northern fence of the field that also holds the Wasbister ‘disc barrow’ and the Bookan Cairn settlement (as well as a possible burnt mound by the pow/lochan). From below it appears as a bright green grassy mound on the hill’s SE slope skyline. Only a few yards away is a very rough mound. From some views the ragged mound is so big that this and the cairn could even possibly be a single item subjected to different fates at E and W. But I only found a single flat stone on the whole of the mound’s surface. I make the cairn round with a diameter varying from 6.4-6.5m, which is several feet short of the recorded 8m/27’. Though there are some loose stones around the base there are no signs that these have ever been embedded. But even sans stone setting my eyes thought there might be a cropmark ‘ring’ about the cairn of roughly the right size.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 26, located on the south side of the Lyking road junction at Voy, now consists of two mounds at HY25351496 & 7. A likely cist slab was found at the centre of the N mound but the later discovery of burnt material led to its present designation. It is a metre high, its companion slighter at 0.7m, but the centre would also be the centre of a mound incorporating both present mounds – the two stone blocks at the N side most likely having come from the unrecorded excavation of a site similar to Hawell burnt mound say

Must stress again [after what I saw today] that this is no walk-in, no incline or few steps but a narrow metal ladder going down. Gate no longer stiff. Coming along the farm road you can look across to the remains of Ingshowe broch. At low tide the shallowness of the inlet means it hasn’t been that long archaeologically since it was dry land.

Come up the minor road alongside Maes Howe [marked Fursbreck Pottery] up and past Hybreck until you reach the Grimeston road junction. Pass along the Grimeston road to a fieldgate on the left. Here I entered the place where the standing stone is, striking a diagonal by a small dry burn (these being all over and about Staney Hill I imagine one can rule out glacial deposition for the big rocks ?). From the Staney Hill road you can see the stone behind a ledge like a very low cliff, and then coming this way it reveals itself to be standing above one end of a long wiggly quarry

viewed from main road with equivalent of 520mm lens it is obvious my possible quarry (unmapped ever) is the mound. On the one hand you can see why someone there might think this a burnt mound i.e. crescent-shaped and by water. But from these images it is obvious this is the remains of a large circular mound eaten by the bay.

Twice I have opted to go from the Stenness parish kirk through the fields to the Stones of Stenness but instead had to follow the fence running NE-SW south of it. And each time I have looked at the stump of the old field wall that this follows. Apart from this both times I have cause to note several large stone fragments near the line that aren’t from a wall and each time have mistakenly looked for a gate or other entrance. Now I have the explanation because Pococke’s location for a holed stone, 124 yards west of a stone 18 yards south-east of the circle. Further I identify this with the stone depicted by Lady Stafford : tall and shaggy, cleft from the top to ground level, having an angled top (not slanted) and with a central hole near to the base. It is even possible that Dr.R.Henry’s description of the stone having a hole 3’ up, rather than five, is a reference to this rather than a lapsus pennae.I believe it to have been possibly the size and even age of the Watch Stone
So there were two holed stones near the Stones of Stenness. Of the sentinel stones in Pococke’s drawing along the shore the one (?’stone of sacrifice’) that isn’t the Watch Stone (’stone of power’) is described as having a stone in the middle of it. It is roughly diamond shaped and matches well with the stone doublet of Stanley’s 1789 drawing (admittedly the latter is a shade more rectangular). Walden’s map of 1772 shows a single stone, but this is shown as having just been cleaved in two and the other half of the doublet could be the stone lying flat under the breaking instrument but is more likely from this Stone of Odin. If the former was this heaved out of the shallow hole shown or is that the result of an excavation having taken place ? A hundred and fifty yards N of the stones brings it close to the shore as Pococke shows [~HY30671275], near where Odin Cottage is now.

BROUGH OF BIRSAY SAFE CROSSING
Radio Orkney has discontinued their early morning tide times for tourists to reach the Brough of Birsay. Their system took three-and-a-half hours off the Kirkwall low tide and then allowed five hours for safe crossing. Ocassionally this proved conservative but on very rare occasions folk still got stuck. The reports will be resumed when/if a more reliable method is found.

Finally found Fairy Well at HY2943212982. The Ring of Brodgar and knowes are in a large field with a quarry and such at the SW corner. From this corner a short fence forming a Y with it goes towards the loch and 5m from the base of the Y the well is well hidden by undergrowth at the edge of the steep bank here (about a fence post height). Scramble down onto the shore and look back at the ‘cliff’ face, watching your step as the ground is lumps and bumps and very squishy [so you don’t notice your feet sinking in]. All the way up are large stones of varying shapes though at the moment the spring comes from a gap at the base. A man came walking his dog which lapped up the fresh water momentarily revealed. Not a very regular construction and it appears to have collapsed back – a few feet to the east several yards of the bank have been roughly faced with very large slabs etc. to hold the bank up. Removed as much veg as I could, not sure how it would stand wholesale removal in its present state.

From below Easter Voy followed the loch edge around The Ness. Voy simply means Voy means bay or inlet. There are two of these sites ; site 1 is RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 85 at HY27071511 then slightly further away a likely burnt mound site 2 is HY21SE 86 at HY26091490. Somehow I failed to see the ever-visible causeway linking the former to the land, probably that short distance walking the field edge rather than the shoreline deprived me of this or its more visible from the islet than the shore. From a Romantic perspective site 2 is the more interesting site, with large stones on the top giving a jaggedly profile and that fine section of wall exposed in the western side.

Near the main road is another burnt mound, HY21SE 26 at HY25351497, in the last open space on the south side of the Lyking road. Its being so close to the mill and its dam I can’t help imagining this too was once an islet in the loch like the islet at Redland to the south. In the north side are a couple of very obvious stone blocks. Too nacked by now to go in for a look. The record is for two mounds. That at the back is reckoned natural but it strikes me that what with the disparity between their sizes these could have formerly been one, with the ‘cist slab’ from the highest point being its centre too. The derelict building on the burn’s other bank is Voy Mill itself. On this side further along tis a small scatter of middling stones unlike the usual result of wall collapse and these could have been taken from the burnt mound and removed here after the rest received use elsewhere.

Gate to field containing Bookan Tomb nicely open. Top of this bare now, no plastic. Gate directly right of track is also open and leads into field with the “eminence thrown up by the brecks” [look at the photos and you really cannot see them as other than a tight grouping] – brecks as land of naturally broken appearance rather than brecks as rough land brought into cultivation. The ground is rather damp near the gate as the farmer is drying a hummock of black stuff off. The quarry is in the brecks but I don’t believe The Brecks are all quarry as a walk around shows a proper quarry fenced off from them at a neck N of the mounds and the rest is too curvy.
All the mounds have exposed areas, with HY21SE 24 by the edge of The Brecks undoubtedly the most natural, sitting as it does on the natural rock with its single southern exposure capable of being read as proof either way. There is a steepish drop behind its western end and good rocky outcrops in the cliff-face (though a bit ragged for building methinks). Below its NW’ern end down almost into the brecks are one or two slight oval troughs that might have held something or slipped down from above. Almost under the SW’ern end there is a single rock slab sticking out of the cliff-face, which though almost undoubtedly natural has had an earthfast orthostat set at right angles abutting it as if to hold this back. Just the one orthostat, but definitely not natural.
Sites HY21SE 9 i (nearer to the tomb) & ii (to the N of i) are built partly onto the hillslope and each have several exposed areas, some earth with a few small stones and others with proper rocks. Almost certainly ii is the source of the cist. And not just because it has more structural material about and on it. Calling the feature on its top a circular depression is wholly inadequate. Walk below the eastern flank and look up at the northern end and there is a well-defined near hemisherical bank forming the top edge – despite the excavation definitely an archaeological feature rather than from archaeologist’s workings.

Don’t know how I missed the entrance to the ?souterrain before, just inside the fence on the S side of the road at HY2706715113. Guess I looked for a channel further down whereas it starts as a hole like a badgers set (no sign of the masonry walls in the dark, should have used the camcorder’s nightlight) literally a couple of feet from the actual fence behind three flat stones. I assume these are a few of the lintels from the intermittent roof of the built passage. This is described as 800cm square to begin with, though perhaps narrowing further on – it goes south-easterly to a ditch but after some 2.5m turns quickly eastwards and then the hillslope and presence of mud stopped investigations progressing to what they describe as the inner end (or else it goes ~100m down to the loch). By the western stone I could see a masonry wall of thin stones behind a grass fringe. Not wishing to be disturbed by the ploughman in the next field I did not enter for a more thorough going over. This side of the road the ‘broken’ mound is ascribed to outbuildings on account of projecting stones but it is obvious that the passage is within the tower’s circuit – at The Howe we found a souterrain which had been struck through the tomb at the centre of the broch so the road might have demolished a northerly continuance (an odd coincidence otherwise).

In the same field as the Wasbister ‘disc barrow’ and the Bookan Cairn settlement are two lesser sites, presumably [a lot?] later than the monuments.
The Wasbister Cairn can be found by climbing the hillslope to a bright green grassy mound by the top end of the northern fence. This very rough mound (very very ragged and disjointed it is definitely an item), is only a few yards away from the cairn itself. From some views the ragged mound is so big that this and the cairn could even possibly be a single item subjected to different fates at E and W. But I only found a single flat stone on the whole of the mound’s surface. As for the cairn, though there are some loose stones around the base there is no sign that these have ever been embedded. There are a few horizontal slabs dotted about its surface and one at the northern side with a seemingly curved face sticking out as if originally part of walling – perhaps there are similar out of sight.
The Wasbister Mound lies down near the Dyke of Sean. Rather than a lochan I would consider the body of water a pow or large pool. Either side of the dyke the number and size of pools varies and old maps show many straight lines in and around them of unknown origin, some still visible. The slight mound is most easily seen coming from the barrow to the pool. There is a comparatively large piece of erosion at the highest point showing earth and a couple of smallish stones. In going back to the fieldgate I passed over a large rise – it isn’t on record and there are no stones or anything visible but it has a feeling of settlement

from the valley floor these are almost as omnipresent as the Bookan Tomb [to its right on the skyline though actually further uphill] although closer to the hill their bases are hidden. They lie next to the quarry, the track to which is just over the west fence next the tomb. Unfortunately the diarrhoea pills failed to work so foiled again – Brodgar has no toilets anywhere !

Still think this could be a much denuded Taing of Beeman like settlement even though the possible dividing orthostats run across the mound apparently on the edge of the southern half rather than strictly in-between. Definitely a game of two very different halves. Backing up from the northern edge of the ‘upper’ half to take it in I found that I seemed to be stepping back along some kind of small ‘causeway’ leading up to it. This half consists mostly of a circular depression with a few relaxed stones about it, whereas the southern half has a rather level top with several definite orthostats. Thinking of the Beeman settlement and how it was mistaken for a broch from the air I wondered if the now demoted ‘disc barrow’ nearby might not be still more settlement [with the bank meant to keep the inhabitants out of the myre].

On the steep climb to the tomb you are grateful for a few flattish bits but don’t pay much attention. Yesterday, however, whilst taking shots from Wideford Hill it was evident that these result from a couple of very large ‘platforms’ (seen in outline on the north side of the images). First thought was that these are connected with the tomb, which they dwarf almost as much as Heddle Hill. Second thought is cultivation terraces related to the nearby Neolithic settlements.
Prepared to be shot down in flames.

Leaving the Ring of Brodgar the next feature is the Dyke of Sean, the old Stenness-Sandwick boundary down to the loch – on the other side of the accompanying burn the Wasbister disc barrow sits in the far corner of a usually rather damp field. Looking up to the north look for the big green mound on the skyline in the uphill field. This is the Bookan tomb. Take note of the field as this isn’t seen when you approach the fieldgate. Follow the field edge up to the tomb and just beyond take the track right that goes by the west side of the quarry with the various [?lesser] Bookan cairns along its sides. Leaving these looking northward and slightly downhill you see the Skae Frue mound. Above this is the field containing the Ring of Bookan. You reach the gate before coming to Skae Frue. Follow the track that passes east through two erect stones and in a few minutes the ring appears to your left. The easiest way into the surrounding ditch is on the right where this meets the field edge and then on the east side is the lower side of the mound. From on top you have a complete view of all the hills comprising the ‘rim’ of the ‘bowl’ within which the “Great Sacred Monuments” sit. More properly from any high point on the ‘rim’ the Ring of Bookan is visible, even when the monuments aren’t. Ante- or post-quem, eh !

This is NOT visible from the Ring of Bookan, the skyline is the Bookan tomb with the mounds (The Brecks) about the old quarry.

The beggars have boxed it in, trying the old direct route but instead had to do a circular one through three fieldgates before entering by one almost opposite Skae Frue. Alas, though the Comet Stone points to it the Warbuster hill hides the valley below even if you took away the Bookan cairns from around the old quarry. No, it is Bookan tomb that dominates the view of the monuments below. On the other hand you can see why they built here – from on top you can see an unobscured 360deg panorama of the hills.

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.

An absolute pig to get to, and even for me not worth the bother – it actually looks better at a distance, and I only found one of the stones, its like nothing’s stopped growing yet. A complete jumble of grassy depressions and peaks, none distinct as to form or function.

The trial excavation here for the Ness of Brodgar dig has uncovered another ‘great wall’ and it is interesting to note that this is at right angles to the standing stone pair, ‘pointing’ across the gap (centrally ?)

Being the last week of this year’s dig, with today the last predicted dry weather, took my final visit. Finally minded to visit the trial excavation on the other side of Lochview. Disappointingly only one face of the feature has been exposed so far. What they haven’t mentioned yet is that the ‘new’ “great wall” is at right angles to the Lochview/Brodgar stones, possibly bisecting the gap between the pair. If this does mark the southern edge of the site that would put the likely chambered tomb on the putative ‘living’ side, which would raise several interesting questions.

It’s in a terrible state, what were rabbit scrapes is now an extensive burrow system – it would be better excavated before it becomes a complete unstratifiable mess

This site shows how size isn’t everything. There was a complicated set of ceremonies surrounding matrimony involving all three rings and another Bookan site. Though nothing is recorded for this place, if the early name of Ulie Stane comes from dialect ullie ‘oil’ might I suggest a reference to chrism and perhaps ceremonies surrounding childbirth ? Note that this was the way to the Ring of Brodgar on the old track that ran through the “sacred monuments”, making it a gatekeeper kind-of – in the 19th century gentlemen still doffed their caps to it.

[My stone measurements are likely accurate but the distances between them and across the mound are as near as I could manage alone. {NMRS converted to metric} ]
The Comet Stone aligns NW/SE and sits in a depression presently measuring 2.7m by 2.3m and 20cm deep. The main stone stands 1.88m at the SE end {1.75m} and 1.97m at the NW, depth 27-28cm {29cm}, width 70cm at base increasing to 73 {76cm}. Measured height differs enough from NMRS to indicate surface erosion [there is a long scrape in the northern half too]. “Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky” by Trevor Garnham gives an alignment to Maes Howe. but unless my compass reading is absolutely useless is incorrect this is not so, explaining why the meticulous antiquarians would miss such a thing- the alignment would seem, rather, to carry on to the Ring of Bookan [though this is on the hillslope invisible from here unless it stood higher formerly or had a superstructure such as a stone ring or posts] and perhaps ? to something roughly in the Dowsgarth region in the other direction. This NW/SE alignment is shared by the Stanerandy Tumulus (for a long while thought to be standing stones) and the Deepdale Stones, both on Mainland, and the Langsteeen on Rousay – we know so few s.s. orientations that there could well be more. The relationship with the recorded ‘stubs’ is striking, forming a geometric unequal tee-formation. Following the alignment 2.97m {2.67m} brings you to the western edge of Stub i and from that 2.75m takes you to the eastern edge of Stub ii. These define the mound’s axes. Axis A , defined by Comet to Stub i ‘W’, is perpendicular to Axis B which is along the line of the two stubs (a NE/SW alignment shared with the Watch Stone stump and the Spurdagrove s.s. pair). Using ‘mound’ for the area currently left rough then the mound is 16~16.5m along Axis A and ~11m along Axis B – NMRS gives approximate size of 13.7x12.8 and ~80cm high. At the edge, 6.5m from the Comet Stone’s SE end only a few inches away [

Looking along the Comet Stone with stub i the Ness of Brodgar is perfectly framed, like looking down the barrel of a gun.

Videod the site yesterday, first round the whole site then circling the indivisual elements. and observed that most components had an orientation to the Bigswell area (where there used to be a Johnsmas fire on the hillside) – do the alignments we recognise for such places hold primacy or does survival and/or our perception of significance affect our judgement ?

This time I did the clever thing and went to the other end of the quarry and through an open field-gate into the field next door, which is the one with the stones – just follow the field edge over from the quarry tightly uphill if there are crops in it. Despite the crop able to do all the photography I wanted, circling as I had at the Staney Hill one, because this part of the field is rather patchy so that long steps and careful placement of the feet avoids damage. Does this patchiness imply something underlying this, possibly even archaeology ? Looking at the loose and loosened stones directly around the stone I wonder whether s.s. sockets are always contemporary – I can imagine standing stones being, as it were, bare rooted and then someone later noting a Pisa effect and then taking remedial action. Over in the next field towards Howe half-way along the field edge used to be a well (and small building but not a wellhouse), reached by a straight track from the Howe road, and it is likely that other stones noted in the vicinity are from its being filled in in like manner to that at Crossiecrown in St.Ola.

The way to this is on the Cauldhame road (whose marked end lies on the Stromness-Skaill road whilst the other end can be found following the road north from the Co-op and around the Loons), and it is downstream of Una where a fieldfence stops near the burn’s southern edge. In the flesh it presents more the appearance of an islet in the stream, a small water-carved eyot. An urgent bladder deterred me taking a closer look. This is a shame as the burnt material is on the one unseen slope, everywhere else exposing bare yellow earth au naturel. The burn runs around its northern side but doesn’t show on the photos. On the opposite side I saw a ?curving plateau between it and a more or less straight much higher ‘bank’ lying outwith an uphill fence (whose eastern end’s stone post shows continuing erosion by its exposed base, just about visible on one shot) – did the burn once course here too, which would then rule it out as a burnt mound. Adding to my suspicion of once higher waters are the ‘terraces’ around the streamward side. Perhaps the natural has been co-opted and the real archaeology had been on top. I am minded that Langa Dae [Linga Dee] in this parish had cinerary mounds and “the burn or water courses have been conducted in a meandering manner about each mound”

Walking along the bottom line of the Grimeston road [which connects to Quoyer by a couple of farmtracks] at HY31981455 there is a complicated bit of stone building around and about a burn on its western edge.This includes drystane walled banks, but what is interesting is what looks like a short line of brown stones that is the footbridge used in crossing before the road was built sometime after 1882. Coming up the northern leg Langskaill is a fine example of a threshing mill and associated water furniture. Looking across the burn to the field at the end of the furthest south building the brilliant sunshine picked out a rise on the slope as a translucent pale green [possibly with ridges] amid the surrounding dark tussocks. From the road I could see a standing stone on its LH periphery and another at the top. Less obvious is a shorter one hard by the farm building at the right, all three being around the periphery pointing in. Though there is a ‘standing stone fence’ outside the wall they aren’t part of it. Stepping off the road and following an old wake in the damp ground for more views it became even more obvious that this is a mound. A local book on Harray gives the name Pickaquoy for the area about Langskaill, indicating that the Vikings found a prehistoric site here. There is a curving ridge in the field north of the buildings, however there are dozens of these in the Grimeston and Staney Hill area that are of natural formation (banks, moraines, outcrops etc.].
I hold the same opinion of Henge – I know Andrew Appleby was struck by the stones there but it would be hard for the antiquarians to miss a site of such a large size. And Dave Lynn is right about the putative entrance, the causeway is evidently a result of one of the two tracks that preceded the road [devil’s advocate does say the constructors could have taken advantage of such an entrance and removed it in so doing]. Because of sheep only explored some of it. Near the SW corner of the field there is a circular bank around a flattish depression where from the road I saw stones . There are plenty of these and the odd space in places beneath. However there is also a big chunk of machinery so it is difficult to say anything without its removal.

The mound is outside of the field fence, an unenclosure. Coming from Unstan I thought of going along the coastline but I reckon Dead Sand could well be quicksands, and the land beyond looked patchy – also I wasn’t sure where the mound lay in relation to the fields where kie were grazing. Instead I decided to go via Corn Hillock, taking the track that goes down to the north end of Cumminess Bay. Walk the shore as the clifftops though low are broken up in places. The planticru on the landward side is out of proportion to the surviving mound, and I wonder if has a more direct connection to earlier features than simple re-use of stones. Coming to the exposed fraction of the broch the cutting looks way too regular for erosion by sea. There is an area at the front of the cut covered by stones that could either have come from the wall or might possibly be a floor exposed by erosion. Standing above the wall still present gives the impression that it is only faintly curved near the mound’s periphery and then sweeps in where it is more fragmented, and then following on there are a few slabs (rather than blocks) in a line above the level of the wall top. Walked the grassy mound top directly behind the wall and found myself stumbling over hidden stones – the smal structure ?? – so watch your step there. Then in front of you there’s a big depression, a rounded hollow almost down to ‘ground level’, open seaward, that is probably an ovoid stroke lens-shaped area like those you’d expect between an outer broch wall and the tower. At the back can be seen just two courses of a wall, just two stones with another one a few inches away barely peeping out. Another, say, six inches to thesouth and there’s a brown stone behind a grassy veil and and another couple of feet another similar. Not much of a wall line but its there [just now I’m reminded (for the brown stones) of the two near the top of Howie o’ Backland in Deerness]. A couple of stones at the bottom of the hollow may or may not be loose. Between the mound and the shore the ground is flagstone with a slight incline and it is obvious that the broch has been built straight onto the rocks. Unlike Inganess and Berstane there is no cliff beneath, so it must have stood further back from the coastline than them. Near the base the odd brown stone can be seen, these being more obvious and frequent near the cut. If the mound has always been about its present height then the broch can never have been much more than three metres, perhaps four metres at most. So my thinking is more central tower than high tower.
I wonder if this entire stretch of coast could actually have once been called Gammi Sea, from the Knowe of Gemashowe (lost but near the Hall of Ireland) through Cummi Ness and the knowes of Gimme’s Howe to [or including] Gorrie Knowe just north of here.

From the hill above the Mill of Ireland this and Cummi Howe broch and The Cairns ‘Danish fort’/castle look equidistant – though it is 8m from the cliff edge the other sites could have suffered more erosion, one tideswept and the other ? subject to undercutting – and there were three brochs on the other side of the water too. From the road the hollow appears less central. Short of Outbrecks I followed the track down to the north end of Cumminess Bay. There is a gate into the NW corner of the field containing Corn Hillock but my main purpose was to see the known broch, so as yet I have only viewed it from the coastal fence. At this end of the bay there is a rather lage area covered by loose large stone blocks of fairly regular shape that have all the appearance of being artificial, which made me think of the the stones dumped into the sea from the Work Broch in St.Ola (and from whatever lay by/under St.Nicholas Church in Holm). Though I then walked along the low clifftop it is a little intermittent and I would suggest going along the shore mostly. It simply has not the feel of a broch in my mind. Only a few stones can be seen in the coastal side until you approach the north end, where I noticed what seems to be an overgrown trench (either excavated or for sheltering stock I think) with various sorts of stone around the likely sides. These are mostly horizontal slabs, perhaps evidence of drystane walling – but I wish I had gone in to inspect as my images show up on the southern end a large ? orthostat and low down on the northern end a rectangular sandstone block that may have an incised line around the face of it. The orthostat’s position is an unlikely one in a broch (my hazard would be pre or post “Broch Age”) and the block resembles ones I connect with early kirks (there is one in a wall by Long Howe that has to come from St.Ninian’s Chapel and another in the Sands of Wideford bridge I take to have come from Essonquoy). Best guess from me is that Corn Hillock is the result of two periods of construction.

Don’t really see how a defensive structure this size could escape mention in the sagas or later, more historical, chronicles. Strangely the most obvious defensive feature isn’t mentioned in EASE survey (at least in the NMRS description from this) – as I approached from Corn Hillock at the north edge there runs a long deep trench like a burn that has been made into a rather rough slipway, some stones apparent in the sides. At two places I managed to scramble up the cliff. Nothing doing. At a third looking back from the south The Cairns only had a few stones visible but there is a rather small peak near the centre of the profile.

The 1958 newspaper report on the Tomb of the Eagles reports a little disturbed long grass-covered mound (smaller than Isbister) between the tomb and the burnt mound settlement, with a few protruding stones. This can be found where North Taing appears on the O.S. as you are in close sight of the Tomb of The Eagles, inside a field.

It is a low bolster shape of earth with a few stones of varying size, and ends just before the modern fence. It is most striking that a only a few metres to its south is the angled top of a very regular-shaped stone, projecting a couple of feet or so and about six inches thick.
My rough measurements give NGRs for the stone at ND46938423 and the eastern end of the mound at ND46958425.

After the first fortnight of John Hedges recent survey of the area including the Tomb of The Eagles he found many dfferent Bronze Age sites.

A fellow brochaholic, an actual archaeologist, has noted the narrow neck to the promontory that this stands on as strongly resembling other broch sites he has visited, saying that if it isn’t a broch it has to be something else significant.