wideford

Coming from the Dounby direction what can be mistaken for a second stone is the end of a ‘Nissen hut’ barn

Almost opposite the Viewpoint grounds on the right-hand side of the road the footpath is better marked now – though the sign is smaller it now looks to go all the way. So up in front of the house and turn the corner it is the second field from the road. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me but the fence is indeed ‘missing’ a lower half, and as the ground was virtually dry one not so low roll and I was in (maybe you will find the proper way in further along the track). Not much marshy now. Stands out a little better closer to. A mound like a jelly mould with two tiers, the official record a mound with platform [as with Howe Harper] but they are of about equal depth so I hae my doots. Perhaps the upper part once stood as high as Howe Harper and a covering cairn has been robbed. But what looks to be an excavation on the top indicates it has always been about this height [unless the livestock are responsible]. Like that cairn exposed areas show an earth matrix with some small irregular stones (fragments?) and other stoney material. With the surrounding shallow ditch and encircling low bank it now presents a certain Henge-like appearance. The latest official record castigates the earlier report but I think the conflict arises from confusion about what exactly the dimensions recorded now and then include or exclude [perhaps this is why Hillhead outside Kirkwall has been seen as two banks and a ditch or v.v depending on what area the eye takes in – and ? over time ditches fill in as banks erode]. What looks to be what’s left of the standing stone, a split orthostat with one side above the other as if thumped, is now certainly behind the present bank. One end of this comes up against a (aligned?) short low ‘bank’ with a few middling stones showing and a few more of these in this general area too. Further back there are loose collections of well-sized stones. They don’t look right for a demolished drystane wall but they are over towards the other mounds which have bigger stones yet, some about the ‘burn’. A busy few fields and rather ‘messy’ for a ritual site [on the other hand it doesn’t overlook anywhere itself].

This last week I have taken new digital images used my SLR (slide film not used up yet) and a mini-DV camcorder to record various features in this area [including a ?land-drain which ends partway down the cliff with six foot depth of narrow drystone wall forming its top]. Coincidentally it has been announced today that the land between Hatston pier [read Lower Saverock] and the main road is being taken into development. To do this they have also bought “a field on the Finstown side”. Presumably not disturbing archaeology ?
The conglomerate/puddlestone on the burnt mound’s uphill side is becoming buried, probably by the same over-vigorous machining that has further eroded the top. More of the small stones, mostly burnt [though some slightly larger pieces may have been shiny once] are showing now. But more interestingly the polished dark tops of possibly square stones are presently coming level with the surface, and these seem to have some kind of order to them. I managed to get my fingers two or three inches down the side of one without finding a base, though it is too early to be talking of pillars yet. On the top at the Finstown side I’m sure there is some kind of ridge – evidence for a wall beneath or simply a by-product of early digs ? I am reminded a little of the Hawell burnt mound.

Not all authorities believe in Hedge’s hornworks, calling the north one only a wall (the south being at most modified natural). Inside the fence the exposed wall [which puts me in mind of the Ness of Brodgar] runs so very straight, smack into the outermost cairn walling. Bronze Age bones were found enclosed in the ‘hornwork’ wall, and the suggestion is that this is therefore itself of that date. How it looks to me is that the wall once led near to the cairn at an earlier time only to be later blocked off by the present outer cairn walling. Outside the fence the possible continuance of the wall presents more the appearance of curving. And to me there look to be a few taller fallen stones on either side of this section – the remains of a processional way ?

John (Hedges) wondered if any of the various sites Ronnie Simison had noticed had been taken on board. Well, 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. The tomb les in front of where two fences meet at an angle, and infield of the start of the straight fence leading to these (near where the 1:25.000 shows another North Taing) this can still be seen. It presents as a low pillow shape of earth with a few stones of varying size, cut through in a few places then ending 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 [photos megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=20250&mode=&order=0&thold=0]. Is there a relationship with the tomb, as both of these and another ‘hump’ past the tomb can be seen on the horizon from the burnt mound.
The tomb’s north hornwork would appear to continue past the fenced enclosure, and additionally I found a few very small erect slabs barely protruding in the same general area.

Thought I’d try the Loch of Tankerness again for Raymond Lamb’s double BA house/settlement. The stone in the field by Grieves Cottage is now down. Would have liked to know if anything was thereby revealed but new fences were then being set up in the field. Between the loch banks and the loch itself is a very wide flat margin, and though the water level appears to be now lower this margin has dried out considerably. A not quite row of rectangular features has come to light (or at least become more obvious through ‘drainage’), long ends facing the loch. Coming south from the gothic boathouse the first one [A] is totally dried out and would seem natural with low opposing linear rocky outcrops/walls forming the long ends with big brown slabs covering three sides and a short line of erect stones coming from landward to the northern end of the long east side. There are two stones that look to form a smal circular arc. The next depression [B] is like a cross betwen semi-circle and rectangle, it is filled with grass and there are only a few of the large brown slabs. The third feature [C] is still a pool, has well-formed sides of that low rocky outcrop (the north side is definitely untouched natural with very long rocks as has the lochward side), no large brown slabs. Its south and east sides are fairly unformed. What is most fascinating, however, is the way that the pool is sub-divided narrow-ways by angled ‘causeways’ of mostly small stones. Not all of these visibly go all the way between the long sides. They remind me of the stone rows I had seen around the Harray loch. Why not perpendicular ? My thought was fish traps [?fishponds], though I had no idea why this was sectioned up. The next dried-out pond [D] is distinctly L-shaped and regular. The last feature [E] also still holds water and almost has a complete division. With these last two you can look across at the burnt mound and [groan] ponder connections. At the Waterhall end is a drained arm of the loch, the bottom revealed by nature or artifice, I know not which. So after the time of Raymond’s drought did the loch levels never recover in the time since or could his features now be permanently exposed but unseen ?

Vehicles aren’t allowed on the Binscarth farm road. After the track to Wasdale, but before you reach Binscarth House, a track goes above the house and along the hill [no, I couldn’t find a way through the gorse, so don’t try]. After a short while you come to ruins on your left, what look like greenhouses in an old quarry, and from there climb up and the pass back above the gorse. First you come to a mound with what look like stone slabs face down into it. Then you come to a small one that looms over a great scallop out of the hillside at the top of which a rocky ?outcrop is exposed. And Howe-Harper comes next in the top right corner of its own field practically. The ditch is quite obvious, though it survives best on the uphiill sides (north esp.) and topside. I’m not certain of the mound standing on a platform myself, looking from the north across at the partially surrounding ditch the word that comes to mind is berm. There are two exposed areas, a good one on the south side with small flat stones set into earth, an a smaller section on the north side only earth but with an area of dark dusty material. From here I went to the bottom right corner where there is a stone style at the wall corner – a design new to me, much larger curved stones like a spiral staircaise – into the next field [which feels like bad cobbling underfoot] for another distant look look at the ‘crannog’. Thinking of tombs overlooking settlements this cairn overlooks a circular ‘thing’ in the valley below, a pow when there’s been heavy rain or a cropmark otherwise.

After visiting the Ring of Brodgar dig I made my long way over to the Loch of Wasdale. Couldn’t quite get across to “Counrtrywoman"s other island (HY34221517) what I shall call Wasdale 2, as I wasn’t sure whether the fence I saw kept the kie out. My first sight of the edgeset stones, offshore by the wooden hut, didn’t look to show any regular pattern. Carrying further along this old road brought more of them to light, ones projecting less above the water, and indicated a fairly regular spacing. Despite the fact that I saw my first ones in front of that hut they could well be more further up the shoreline as there was too much ‘foam’ there to make anything out. I should point out, for what it’s worth that there do appear to be one or more edgeset stones on the shoreline opposite the site i.e. below the road. In Orkney one or two orthostats (or facing pairs) tend to be called ‘sailors graves’, and more than that is a ‘graveyard’, but to my eyes it is most unlikely that there has been any actual burial ground here.
Coming on to the now permanent island there is a greater depth of the causeway showing. Indeed it is passable now. But you will still need some care over the stepping stones in a few sections – rest the foot and then push off, test firmity on the centre of stones where these don’t have an obvious incline. There is nothing to add about the large stones fronting the mound.
Walking around the islet it certainly seems basically artificial, even if the stonework surrounding the mound isn’t yer megalithic broch style it is definitely circular and the base survives for two or more courses. This earlier site makes its presence most felt at the sides and back of the mound, where the width is least, leading me to think that the Iron Age [? Bronze Age if a crannog first] structure occupied a site more at the northern end of the islet. Behind the mound at the back what looks to be a broch age chamber still stands about a metre high (nettles prevented close inspection. On top of the mound at the back, atop a smaller mound, is the conical modern cairn. From this an older wall runs down to the chamber, to all intents and purposes a radial [not that I’m suggesting a wheelhouse for this site].
I tried unsuccessfully to find the cist in the hind part of the mound, but towards the back, to the side of the moundlet, there is a cuboid arrangement of stones covering one long one (there being an overhang my photos may not show this).
There are the lower courses of one (? two) presumably early/middle mediaeval structures to one side of the later entrance. It struck me that the later folk hoicked out the front of the earlier structure and brought it ‘forward’ to form their own more rectilnear site. As the causeway is some distance in front of the main earlier stuff does it really go with it ?
Despite the present state of the whole islet it could once have supported a more megalithic (broch age) set of walls – there are some great stonking stones used below the farm as a shoreline field boundary or summat that might be originally monumental.
With the present lower shoreline after taking my leave I was able to circle my subject and take shots not takeable close to. If you do this be aware your foot could get sucked in on muddier parts of the shore and by the marsh/heath edges of the field. Even had some close up shots of a pair of skuas – do not disturb. Only when climbing up onto the field did I see the kie in another corner of the field, so I moo-ved on.

Finally time to take slides. Even without livestock it seems every time I go there is more detail to be seen. Now there are short lines of smallish stones all over the circular mound forming part of the long cairn. Evidence for an outer covering of staggared faces (like Wideford Hill only far finer) or a stone cairn where erosion has chanced to form the appearance of lines ? One edge of the slab I think marks the start of the chambered area is where the ‘spine’ noted before looks to terminate, there is a well-defined row of stones forming one side of a small flat area in front of the slab – a cist removed maybe, or the top of a stall or even another chamber ?

Further down on the northern face is a prostrate rectangular slab I don’t recollect noticing before, which is strange as it has a distinctive notch, marked by white lichen, on one of the longer sides. For a moment I fancy it the result of illicit recent digging. One half has lichen, then there is some moss, then nothing – as if it had been an half-buried orthostat. Strange, though, that the notch isn’t in the lichened half.

Running my fingers along the edges the notch proved the only smooth piece, and very nicely rounded at that. We do have re-usable cists in Orkney (such as Arion) like the Argyll type, and the comparatively small notch would be because the whole cist was smaller. So had it indeed formed part of a cist [I ruled out a Ness of Brodgar type oddity staight out when this occured to me later] or only been intended for one then rejected ?

Lifting it carefuly revealed it and another smaller to be resting on unconnected stones with only a narrow slot a few centimetres deep between them, probably nothing relevant again. The simplest assumption is that antiquarian investigators had left it here when done.[why ?].

The stone across the circular area of the long cairn in front of where the chamber/s are looks to me to be the top of a stone that framed an entrance thereto and on the northern side there appears to be a rough line of stones coming down the mound from it – certainly the upper portions of the circular mound changes construction east and west of the distinctively aligned stone [unfortunately though the grass ‘line’ should indicate bilateral symmetry, in the third leading up to the proposed entrance there is much less material exposed on the south side (but the grassy ‘line’ is present again behind the chambers back wall for a short space) where the other half of the entrance should lie]. Found a couple more small holes in various places but my tape measures them as no more than 12-18” deep and most likely burrows. Going the same way as last time and only lifting my head as I come to the putative SE hornwork I find myself looking very much at the side of the long cairn, rather than towards the end as I should be doing if that were correct. My possible cairn is roughly south of Long Cairn where the c of cairn is on the 1:25,000. Disappointed to find the stone isn’t kerb-like but only faces across the upper side. It is only 10” long by 12” high, and from the fact it moves slightly my guess is it doesn’t go far down. Up close for a photo I try to remove a light brown root, maybe 3-4” long almost directly behind the northern end only to find it is the top of another stone (either a deep ‘peg’ or the very top of a stone buried deeper – you don’t dig this close to a SAM so I only pull grass and loose earth which doesn’t work). It feels very even, as if worked, so my thinking is ‘box’ rather than ‘socket. Though the ‘standing stone’ is inside the grassy area I know think this is about 4m away from the edge of the possible mound, which is 8-10m diameter and either circular or oval. From the likely centre the edge is fairly certain but though it sits on a slope I don’t observe a platform or other levelling feature. At this centre the soil has been ?recently exposed in a couple of adjacent spots. The most obvious is the top few inches of a stone, jagged like sharp mountain peaks, then alongside is the flat face of a light stone or maybe the top of another vertical (only a few square inches of this exposed). Going ovr to the ‘modern’ structure by The Castle there are only more stones under the wheel. Further west to the old boundary dyke (which terminates away from the coast on the north side – marshy from there). This abuts the west end of a circular rise that is either another mound or is a natural ‘island’ in the watery landscape. Size on the order of that of Long Cairn’s circular section but not so high, probably marking the end of the Head of Work’s central ridge though not apparently part of it (for all practical purposes dyke and rise are a single entity..

Coming at the cairn from the west there is a possible round cairn showing as a low rise on the horizon at the edge of the southern ridge on the way to it. Inside the W/SW perimeter is a short orthostat. A rather more obvious mound resolves itself into the putative SE hornwork when I look up – were there satellite mounds ? I think that there has been further material exposed on the ‘chamber’ adjoining the east edge of the chamber of record. Going round to the north side of the much higher east end ther appears to be a ?new exposure of near basal material of about half a metre or so and perhaps a cavity at the right as you look at the photo. I am tempted to see The Castle and the possible mound as originally framing the long cairn but the ridge is in the way of land-based confirmation.

I didn’t expect to find this stone and the official guidance is confusing. What you will find is an irregular parallelogram set into the base of the left-hand pillar before the doors of the town hall in High Street and set within an inscribed ring. Couldn’t see it as in anyways bluish myself. The local museum lies not many yards away, slighly nearer Inverness Castle than the stone (a lovely museum with several examples of Pictish Symbol Stones, alas a little late to go on TMA).

NOT A KNOWN FEATURE
My first notice of this feature came when walking the Crantit footpath from the town end. Reaching the corner where it turns back down to the main road and looking across I spotted a lintelled entrance over the other side of the ‘drain’ there, at the corner of the field with what looked to be the remains of a low mound over it (HY4415709002). The feature being above water level, and the piece of ground about the base reasonably firm (neither of which is usually the case), I jumped across the burn. It is composed of drystane walls and flags covered the bottom. At some time an attempt has been made to consolidate the entrance with cement. Though by crouching I could get inside I bottled out of waddling through the entire tunnel in case of sticking, especially as I could see one place near to where the roof had opened up. At that time I did not think to see much at ground level. Of course there was also Petrie’s tomb “close to the shore of Scapa” [not the same as another he dug south of Lingro whilst engaged on the broch but perhaps up on the same side of the bay].
I felt that it stood an outside chance of being the ‘true’ Crantit earthhouse as this entire area, probably once an oyce [tidal inlet], used to be part of the Crantit Estate. The early O.S. maps show nothing for this field, not even a well it might have connected too even though there there were a couple closer to Nether Scapa itself. There are ‘drains’ and straightened waterways throughout the estate, but these are very strictly gridded and do not follow the same alignment. Stepping Stones were marked at a Burn of Crantit bend to the SSW, which is the only other existant (pre)historic feature in the vicinity if it hasn’t been dredged out.
This year after looking in the field the O.S. placed their suggested souterrain (all I found was a stone socket, just possibly a short cist, underneath the fence along the field’s northern border) I went for a better look at my ‘find’ in the next field. This lies near to the western edge where the burn is but runs at an angle to the field edge. Its far end is under a slight rise near what seems to be the first of a short series of old dunes. Between this and the entrance is fairly level, which is what you would expect had this been merely a drain. The passage is covered with thick slabs of ‘unnecessary’ width as shown in several places where these covering stones have somehow fallen in. There appeared to be no more to this feature, though before the entrance is reached there does appear to be a kink – two roofing slabs do not look to point directly to the entrance, however it would need twa folk to check on this together. Even if it weren’t for the notable disparity in alignment despite the slight resemblance of the walling to parts of the Agricultural Improvement ‘drains’ said parts only cover the two or so metres necessary to go from field to field, the rest being uncovered.
I had a few doubts, but the week after I happened to look through my newspaper clippings and found a photo of a feature very like my passage. This was someone in 1995 asking if anyone could recognise where the tomb in said photo had been !! Unfortunately there were stone fieldwalls in the photo and the hills didn’t look to match the view I remembered. Alas nobody answered the querent. Still I hesitated over publishing this site in case (against the odds) I were sadly mistaken as to its age. Then last week I saw three couples with dogs crossing the field, which was very weird. They were nowhere near the passage but in case someone is planning on developing the field I am risking possible humiliation in order that it should be on record before it might suffer damage.
In the images the tape measure is extended to 1m mark.

Looking for another way to the Broch of Burgar I went past farm and mansion houses. Quickly I realised that the field here contained the cairn, not the broch. Even from uphill the cairn impresses with the brightness of the off-centre chamber, especially the prominent inner pair of slabs. It was still rather damp and I went back and forth several times before entering. Despite the slope I found the field totally waterlogged, and suspect it usually is. The whole was densely pockmarked by hoofprints holding yet more water. There was no escaping the darn stuff, though on my way back up I found the high edges of the burn banks to be fairly dry (the burn makes some lovely little waterfalls and I could see long regular stones exposed in the banks that must surely have supplied the better of the cairn material). I think one should always treat published cairn plans as more in the nature of diagrams.

Perhaps careful observation would have made the chamber clear to me, but there is a heck of a lot more going on than you would know without a visit, the surviving portion is very busy, rather a jumble. I might have been able to scramble a way to the broch field but its a good drop if I made a slip. Definitely need good gripping boots, a dry day, with measurements and ‘plan’.

I came down the track to the beach that goes past Evie graveyard (St.Nicholas Chapel site) expecting not to reach this site but turn right for Gurness, the latter fee free for St.Andrew’s Day. However it looked a doddle to get to so I went. Not quite so easy as I thought, despite a reasonably low tide. As I came nearer from the shore I could see at the far end the very tippety-top was a wedge shape that must be the highest surviving point of the broch tower – inner or outer face leastways. It is nice to see the external bank you come to first this way is an obvious one rather than some slight rise visible to the eye of faith. I can see why the remains are unsurveyable so far as discerning structures goes, for between the bank and the main mound the remains I saw consisted of several othostats at varying angles and various scattered slabs apparently face down.

Unfortunately the field fence is taut and I didn’t feel safe in essaying a climb over so I contented myself with hauling myself carefully up onto the mound edge this side of it, from whence the yards to the highest portion of the mound’s coastal edge weren’t so bad. Just on the other side of the fence there are enough slabs sticking proud of the surface to form a rectangular structure, possibly even two. Definitely surveyable I’d say.

This side of the fence there are a few smallish round holes in the dark earthy matter but not enough to bring worries of rabbit infestation. Probably midden rather than burnt material, though I could see no sign of individual components. Unfortunately the coastal side of the fence gives out here, not even the barest of ledges. On the other side of the mound there is as far as I could tell no continuation of the outer bank, though the broch’s inner bank is clearer here and the exposed tower wall is nice (not a patch on the Broch of Burgar of course).

Coming along the shore from the Knowe of Stenso is not easy – even at low tide it as a matter of skirting rocks, clambering up and down geos, crossing over and through burns. Even following the fence line I found some of the boggy bits. Unlike Stenso the fence beside is slack enough to climb over [though no dout they’ll remedy that the morrow], however on coming to the high point without entering the field and then peering over into the slightly depressed top all I saw was grass (in 1928 the P.O.A.S. says neither this nor Stenso had been excavated, but he likely meant professionally as a local had been down inside the latter). To me the site didn’t feel the right orientation for a broch, though as I mistakenly thought I’d a pic from the main road I have no image to check whether it truly is edge on to the coast. Certainly I would have expected to see some signs of a bank outwith the mound. That said, just over the fence at the highest point I did see a few projecting slabs I felt to be an even slighter version of the structure I had seen earlier at the Knowe of Stenso in the exact same relative position.

Coming from Unstan and the Brig o’Waithe, not taking the short road over to Stromness but taking the long sweep round it is easy to see this stone on the brow of the hill above the near corner of the quarry-turned-dump. Easiest to go over the gate in the roadside field before this quarry and then over the gate into the containing field. Because the rain was persisting down and the fields full of corn I opted instead to go around the quarry and through a barb-wire fence. But the thistles meant my trews were dampened anyway! At the base of the extant stone a few broken stones are from the socket I would imagine (in the quarry roadside I espied a large stone that may be part of that destroyed other). Trevor Garnham has the broad face the same direction to Unstan as the Setter Stone is to Braeside, which would have been at 45 degrees to the reported NW/SE alignment of the stone [it is at the same longtitude]. The latter appears to indicate the Dyke of Sean or maybe the Wasbister disc barrow.

Wanting a photo of a cliff on Shap at the junction before Work farm I took the LH turn towards the waterworks. The beach you see between here and the start of the Carness headland is the result of man’s works. Earl George of Caithness in 1614 made first landing at Carness in the campaign against our Earl Patrick. Until modern times all cattle headed for the Scottish mainland were ferried from Carness past Shapinsay, but the ferry point is unknown AFAIK.

At the turn-off for Water Board property the wartime road continues up to the headland. You need to go through two fieldgates, the first of which is chained against vehicles, then along the north coastline keeping to the coast edge. It wasn’t truly damp – there are numerous small drainage deltas, however they all have a smattering of what amount to stepping stones.

As you come to The Castle geo (not quite a rock stack yet) you see Long Cairn across the moss to your right. The long horned cairn [Yarrows type] is 47m long by 12-17m wide, on which is a 15-17m oval mound (Davidson and Henshall report that the ruined chamber was dug before 1928, in which case when RCAMS in 1946 give the mound’s height as 11’9” this must have been prior to that as later authorities give a total height of 2-2.1m and the RCAMS Inventory side elevation shows nothing above this chamber) an Orkney-Cromarty cairn. It is generally accepted with a site such as this that the chambered cairn was completed long before its incorporation by the horned cairn. This site, the Helliar Holm cairn (above the lighthouse to the north of here), and that at Haco’s Ness (on Shapinsay away to the east as you look there), are all intervisible – from which some intended guardianship of Shapinsay Sound has been inferred.

Along the higher ground on this northern side of the headland as well as the various purple orchids I was delighted to see Grass of Parnassus. What most struck me, though, was a darker form of eyebright mingling with the usual form – it appeared that they both grew on the same plant, the same coloured throat but violet instead of white elsewhere on the flower. I expected The Castle, a geological feature, to be difficult to recognise. Plain as a pikestaff really, a future stack with a short modern cairn (possibly hollow) of brown stones on top. I could have climbed down up the narrow neck... coming back might have been trickier. In the neck’s ‘valley’ there is an angled wall, of the same material and equally modern looking, at the eastern side. Beside this what resembles a solid cartwheel is apparently covering a well or something. The other side of the wall a large slump of water-worn rocks goes to the rocky beach far below (only after seein a picture I took have I seen steps on the southern side of the wall that go down to this [or I would have myself !]). By the cifftop the other end of the narrow beach is a bank of soil where the earth has been scraped up fairly recently.

After passing The Castle I crossed over mushy ground to the long cairn, soft-going but I did avoid damper patches. On this side of the mound I could see middling-size stones, presumably from the small late structures referred to by Davidson & Henshall others perhaps connected with the reported rectangular hollow (west of the chambered mound) they also believe prehistoric but not original. In my initial approach from The Castle circling clockwise the south horn of the western hornworks was very visible as a long broad grassy strip with a rounded top, looking like a pseudopod or starfish arm.

Coming to the western end the inside of the eastern hornworks my first impression was a sharper, less obtuse angle than shown on plan. I wonder if they have eroded back where these ‘end’ as this appeared higher than the reported height to me (however the O.S. earlier did report this end of the mound as of greater height).

Up on the mound not much more than a step from the back of the hornworks I found a feature [my A] surely not previously noted, as D&H state that turf covers all except the high mound. It takes the form of an oval, 4.8m wide by 3.8m front to back, on which lie many slabs. These are in a slight depression but as I looked back from its eastern edge a very low bank was visible. Perhaps it is a chamber of the later long cairn, but if instead this is from a second original mound it would help explain why the later cairn has appeared too long hitherto (the Roseness cairn also has an apparent satellite, even lower than this).

Next along I saw a slab projecting a little, distinct from the glimpsed ‘wall-faces’, then further on again the base of the main mound. The latter is about 12m across. Continuing to the back there is a 0.68 long angle topped slab projecting 0.3m , and a little distance on at the high point a hollow [my B1] filled with stones and slabs that is is 3.1m wide. At 1.4m from the western edge by the back end of the hollow (2.1m front to back in D&H) is 0.6m of an orthostat 1.1m wide was plain to see – I think this is in D&H as 1.5 by 0.65, wary of getting too closeI may have missed a bit. It is unfortunate that though the RCAMS Inventory shows this chamber on side elevation it is not indicated on the plan view, because half-a-metre to the right of B1 is another slab- & stone-filled circular hollow [my B2]. This is 1.7m across and fractionally lower on the hill (there are orthostats in B1 whose level is given as 0.65m below that of the rear slab). A second stall or possibly another chamber I would imagine (I suppose it might be that the turf between the two is simply the result of archaeological methodology). Then, just behind this, the other side of an imaginary line from B1’s largest orthostat is a depression [my B3] 2.3m wide and 2.2-2.6m from front to back. Despite there being not much stonework poking through B3 I would hazard that this represents a robbed stall/chamber (hence its apparently more downslope position) resulting from digging prior to the 1920’s period in which B1 is likely to have been excavated.

At the eastern end of the long cairn the S horn survives over twice the height of its NE counterpart making the latter less eviden on first viewing. At the moment the forecourt is very clearly defined by a singular display of a bed of reeds. Full distances and dimensions, as far as I could measure on my own, are givn under miscellaneous.

Though the ground about the site is mostly damp and springy this is boggiest on the southern side where it slopes down to the cliffs. I tried to get back this way but it was way ‘boggy’. When I kept to the drier portions this brought me to a ‘mound’ which is presumably the western end of the ridge, and less than a metre in front of this a bank or dyke, both apparently composed of earth with a few stones. The latter is rather bulky and would seem to emphasise control over the approach to the cairns, as along most of the Head of Work what some call rough pasture most would think of as approaching shallow bog (Roseness is similar though heathery). This must be the route Moth and Jane took through Work farm, once site of a broch and perhaps a souterrain.

After heading down across to the cliffs I went along the clifftop under the watchful eyes of two seals, but came to stop where the drystane fieldwall reaches the cliff. At this spot there’s a girt big pile of slabs 3-5’ long and maybe 4-6” thick, like a fallen stack of dominoes. Followed the wall back up to a gate, but with the field having kie in it I left well alone. This would seem to be the normal route to the headland. Further up another gate had a sloped top ‘standing stone’ over five feet tall as one of the gateposts. Then I was back at the military road again.

The field is named Stenso from stens-a ‘standing stone burn’. Today the open gate gave entry. I found a N/S aligned stone at the top of the hill. It projects less than it is thick i.e. 6” or less. If this is the stone it has become further reduced this last couple of months, if not then it is previously unrecorded. I had my photos but a tractor man ordered me off before I could take measure of the thing. He said that I wasn’t allowed and the land was private [an English derived conceit]. After the bullying I forgot to check from the road for the proper s.s. if this wasn’t it and doubt I’ll dare again.

After a promising start the expected Mesolithic windfall was a no show, the present hypothesis being that work on the barrow removed most of this previous material.

My visit to the excavation left me distinctly underwhelmed. First impression is that a mushroom-cap shaped rise has been revealed that consisted of a layer of small to medium sized flat stones sitting on top of soil (as distinct from embedded in an earth matrix). In the eastern quadrant they have dug through this. Just in front of what seems to be the very decomposed inclined top of a rocky outcrop (reminding me of the geophys lines at the other end of Long Howe) is a 4-6’ line of stones that looks to be at least one course of non-drystone walling. Apart from a couple more stones after a small gap it is isolated, doesn’t seem to be going anyplace or connecting up with anything else presently visible [so no mortuary enclosure then ;-) ]. Perhaps something later trashed this and the postulated Mesolithic material?

Walking around to the NW side of the dig (facing the road to Twinness) I saw an irregular shallow narrow trench that I take to be where they looked for a continuation of the previously found stakeholes or else the originals.

If you go “around the houses” there will be a way in through gates, but this being the end of a decent dry period I took a shorter but naturally difficult route into the field containing the bulk of the cairn. By the field boundary is the mound with large exposed stones that I photographed on a previous visit believing it to be part of the cairn. Now I have my bearings this is not recorded as connected. But there is a strong suggestion, in my mind, that all is part of a bigger site that arcs around this hillslope. Perhaps it is all on some glacial feature, glacial action that is presumably the cause of the very large boulders being embedded in the banks of what I assume to be a former burn further upslope. On this part of the hill several features appear to run into one another, and a few of these also appear to have been trialled for archaeology..

Continuing up the Dounby road past the Howe crossroads, the Appiehouse Stone is at the top of the mound that can be seen behind the farm on your left. I have never found it before as coming from this direction it is basically invisible – the first sighting is when you look carefully as you come level with the summit. Coming from the Dounby direction it is much easier to see. Only it looks rather unlike the photo on the site record, being equally irregular in shape but nearer a rectangle than a triangle, unless it manages to look drastically different on the other face. Alas the presence of sheep in such a relatively small space meant I couldn’t check inside the field to confirm or deny the apparent further reduction in height. On the northern side there is a big dip with a steep rise, but this is not regarded as a connected bank/ditch as there are more similar behind it.

On the southern side there are a few projecting stones distant from one another, but the mound is believed to be natural. However, in 2004 in the course of building works part of a stone structure came to light and they had to re-route the pipe around the mound. Unfortunately where this structure stood vis-a-vis the mound itself is not noted. On the southern side between the mound and the farm I spotted two very small very shallow circular mounds a few inches high, of which the more obvious one looks to have at least one stone projecting either close by or at the edge. Something to do with the structure or relating to the pipe, or simply natural ?

Walking from the Kirkwall-Stromness road towards Dounby on the left before reaching Springfield [which is before you reach the top of the Stoneyhill road] I saw a disused farmtrack and pursued it for a possible fresh view of the Grimeston district. Along the way I passed an broad raised track heading off left. Shortly thereafter on the other side I saw a ploughed field littered with stones and with a rise of a strange pinkish-red hue where the map showed nothing. Fortunately I took photos, because this is the spot where the Dale earthhouse is buried – the raised track goes to Dale. Nothing definite to look at, just sus

The road to Stembister passes over a carefully built milldam. From here take the curving road left and the standing stone is behind the building on the left near the cliff. ‘Ware the goose ! On the day I went this kept me at bay and the haar ruled out photography at a distance. Alternatively take the track that goes right and the mound is at the top of the hill as seen from the junction. Once there you realise the burn in the valley below is really is quite some distance away for water-carrying activities to take place. If you are lucky there is only one gate to cross.

Proceeding about the mound weodorshins I felt it to be more square than circle, but didn’t think to take measurements. There are stones of various sizes dotted here and there over it, however none with any kind of burnt appearance. As to shape, it looks like a giant has taken an icecream scoop to the eastern half of it, giving the appearance of a broad ditch with the rim of mound still left intact. My opinion is that someone dug deep down to excavate summat, whether successfully or no, rather than for quarrying stone (though I am reminded just the weensiest of the Knowe of Geoso).

The eastern ‘end’ of the mound looks less steep then the ‘west’ end, so perhaps the orthostat’s E/W orientation represents that of the tumulus itself. Its central concavity is about 6.8m by 5 and is a combination of stones and slabs like that in the general matrix. At the seaward side of this is the orthostat, which projects 67cm at the east end by 60cm at the west, and is 70cm long by 17 thick. It sits in a kind of pocket of flaky rocks – the RCAMS Inventory’s “slaty material” – which extends for 2.2m to the west of the stone’s east end and 1.6m north. All in all this would seem to confirm an E/W orientation for the whole.

Amongst the flakes and rock fragments I found a solitary 4cm fragment of semi-burnt bone (despite distinct carination I’m fairly certain it isn’t pot, not with all those tiny bubbles) presumably extracted by mammals as my eyes found nothing further there.

At the base to the N/NE is what looks like a test pit 1 x 0.7 x 0.3 metres, but I am not sure if the contents are indicative of the mound’s basal material or the old ground surface it was built upon. In front of them a stone 0.5 x 0.25m projects 7-18cm from the ground. Towards the sea, 8m from the east side of the base is a mound, approximately 5 by 4.2m and less than 0.3m high at the perimeter, containing several stones similar to those in the main mound.

The site lies between the present steading and the sea, the main structure being the excavated chapel. The published souterrain can be seen below its floor level emerging from the back at your right and coming ‘out’ from under the wall at a slight angle. It has been filled in with stones, as have two passages in the cliff face far to the E of the main site (I do not know their date) – presumably all by the excavators. It could be me, but I did not see the ‘tunnel’ exiting the cliff.

Pay at the interpretation centre at (South) Liddel/Liddle – vital talk there included in the price. On the way to the main objective the BA house at the burnt mound is a must see. As you come closer to the tomb (RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND48SE 1 at ND47048849) there is a low bank of earth and exposed stones in a field by the track that may be the reduced remains of a cairn or barrow. It is about a couple of metres across and at least several metres long (though you can see the end), starting by the field boundary and at right angles to the fence. From this direction the Tomb of The Eagles (the White-tailed Sea Eagle, or erne, called aigle) is only another scruffy mound.

Coming closer you see several smallish stones projecting from this side, the full glory appearing as you move around, with a resemblance to Wideford Hill Cairn. Best viewed from just ouside the fencing – look from the coastal (i.e. east) side and south is to your left and north at the right. A little of the area about the entrance has been eroded, from just to the left of the passage to way over to the right, so that we are missing the actual entrance (there is no evidence for it being a connecting passage anyway. From the the north side of the central cairn a 1.5m wide wall, standing to 0.3m, runs NNE from the outer wall-face for at least 12m that is known about (? ‘death road’). This feature is later than the cairn but pre-dates the overlying rubble mound. On this side there is strong evidence of a hornwork curving to the NE, on the opposite side an apparently balancing earthwork is canny use of a purely natural formation.

In one place there is a short length of higher standing wall parallel to the NNE running wall behind its western face – part of said hornwork? Climbing on top of this side of the mound there is exposed a long dark stone (or possibly two) that looks to be an E/W course of wall, and looks to be shown on the plan in Davidson and Henshall. Others can describe the interior better than I. The south end side chamber has a display of skulls behind a screen. There is a light switch for this, but you have to keep it pressed in order to even attempt a photo. Davidson & Henshall mentions that quite aways from the cairn a ‘storm beach’, again to the NE, covers some kind of stone structures.

To reach it take the road that runs through South Ronaldsay to Burwick pier, following the signs for the Tomb of The Eagles just before the latter. This is a private site but is included in the price for the tomb. They give a very good talk at the interpretation centre and their information on the various parts of the house make things clear when you arrive at the site. This is quite close to the farmhouse (a very short half kilometre) and is as well displayed as the Barnhouse settlement, though of course much smaller. The final length of track approaches from the north downhill with the site on the left. As you come down look to the field boundary beyond, and to the right where a fieldfence starts uphill is an unexcavated partner mound. I could see Liddle II, ND38SE 5, as a line of dry blonde grass when I went, although it seemed easier to see the slight rise itself as I came back from the tomb. Two orthostats were removed from here and supposed to be gravestones, which makes me think on Mussaquoy. At the north end, past the trough, is the “flag-lined gully leading to a floored [and presently flooded to boot] hollow”. Looking back uphill, the successive laters of stone in the ‘“face’ of the mound at your right are plain as day. Looking clockwise there are four wooden stakes exposed in the ground. Nothing to do with the archaeology, they are much much too close together for a fence and make me think of a fish-trap or simple weir – but why here ?

To reach this site go along the main Kirkwall-Stomness road until you reach the Harray junction, turn up towards Dounby and the follow the directions for Corrigall Farm Museum on the east side of the road. The farmroad is very long and windy. At the museum you can see the mound just a little behind the the farmyard itself, to the right of a broad steep track going up the ways. Unfortunately the persistent rain tipping down prevented my approach to any nearer than the fieldgate beween the museum and the farmhouse (and my brother that drove me is not even into mounds, never mind a brochaholic, so wouldn’t stay), but if you have transport it is well worth a visit if ruinous mounds are your thing. Best ask at Corrigall Farm Museum or the farmhouse for permission I think.

This can be found in a church alongside the road to Burwick pier where the short sea ferry crossings take place in the tourist season). It is now in a back room at the church, and the key can be had from the lady who runs the local P.O. As this is on the 1:25,000 but unsignposted it is probably best to enquire at the Tomb of the Eagles in order to avoid disappointment outside of its limited post office hours.

Visible as curving earthworks line to the east just past the field fence arcing for the sea. Splendid view from atop the cairn, then slide down the back of the mound. Whee !

Found the other end of the possible cist. The distance between the orthostats inner faces is 1.56m and they are offset, the south end of that at the right being in line with the centre of the left-hand one. Measurements are as follows :-

LH 0.56x0.08m, protruding 0.12m from the soil at either end and 0.27m in the middle. RH has disparate edges, the whole being 0.46x0.15m protruding 0.13m, the reduced face 0.33x0.05m showing 0.08m.

The latter, also has a stone lying down against it, only 0.6x0.26m compared to the other’s 1x max. 0.48m. But there is at least one other stone between the slabs so they would appear to date from a later period rather than being co-eval.

It seems curious to me that this mound is in such an odd-shaped ‘field’, even more so as this is only half of larger section of similarly strange shaped ‘field’. Though the eastern half appears fairly level, but I do wonder if it too once produced archaeological finds, as in Orkney farmers often keep odd pieces of land out of cultivation because at some time in the (often forgotten) past there was a reason for so doing – only occasionally do we find what site was at these places.

The site lies either side of the road going down to Mine Howe. Part of it lies by the plantation and looks fairly intact, but as everything is hidden under huge grass tussocks it is unrevealing, and only one trench was placed here. Might have done better to strip just the turf back over the whole area this side of the road.

There is a long straight looking bank maybe a metre high, roughly parallel to the road, and then a further bank or banks behind this ‘pushing’ the plantation back in a curve. If this is the ‘embankment’ then the gap between the end of the arms should be towards the far end of what you see. In the plantation behind is a remaining section of natural burn. Before you reach the main body of the site a wide water channel goes under the road.

On the Langskaill side the far bank the part by the road incorporating larger stones seems to have excessive height for the present usage, and might have been associated with Round Howe or be re-used stones from it. This RH side of the road is where the owners dug in 1946. Over the mid-19th century drystane wall from the roadside the workers left a cut alongside the wall. Perhaps one could still find part of the entrance to the broch (or that in the mound) close by this cut. Climbed a fieldgate onto the site. The start of the ‘arms’ should be about the lower right region as you look at it – on my last visit the land between here and the channel was water-logged. Trench remains complicate the viewing and the “Mine Howe location map” shows earthworks over an 150m wide area (unfortunately the geophysics has no scale in the Mine Howe publication).

Away from the mound what looks like an inner bank is re-deposited material and the rise to the north is natural. You can still see the level area between mound and enclosure easily. There are several stumpy earthwork sections at the Round Howe end of Lang Howe which may properly belong to this site.

The main part of the burnt mound is somewhat over two metres across and reasonably level despite the slight scoop of excavation on the downhill portion, with a few middling stones and quite a number of flattish burnt stones in various hues. Close up I see that this central portion is probably less than the whole. Downhill there is a steeper slope to it (with at least one slightly projecting orthostat by the base) and behind it a long tail. Tempted to call it tadpole-shaped but its really more of a ramp, reminding me of a very tiny Hawell with most of the stone gone.

Coming from the Staneloof-Hunclett track I had to climb over several inter-linked fences to gain access to the field next to the recognised Staneloof sites (unfortunately you cannot get into the area containing these for the new fence-lined ‘drains’ now making the field boundaries here). This is a rather marshy field, even skirting the edge my feet ended up getting damp – you definitely need ‘wellygogs’. Panning around I found myself half-jumping from grassy hump to hump, the marsh interweaving in similar fashion to Brymer. They were, as far as I could tell, irregular in shape apart from the one nearest to the fence by the Staneloof cairn. This, at very roughly HY485070, is circular and of decent size. I half-expected burnt mounds here. Trying to find a way down the field I saw a small quarry-like pool where rocks were. Couldn’t get there so splashed back to the mound. Which is when I saw dark material exposed near the apparent base, perhaps a failed attempt at digging peats. Very damp stuff. I picked some up and the texture was surprisingly granular, lots of spherods like small beads. It has taken a few days for the thought to arise that just maybe this was carbonised grain – but this would not explain the slightly larger irregular pieces. Should have taken a sample. Too late now.

After years of waiting a storm has finally brought down from the cliif edge on the opposite side of the burn to the broch village a few sods containing the midden-y material. Definitely not pot of any kind. The coloured rock appears to be the same kind of burnt stone as I saw last week at the Loch of Tankerness. No doubt the next high enough tide will remove the material from the bottom of the cliff.

Went for pics of the Gothic boathouse and decided to approach from the far side of the low ‘cliff’. With no expectations I was delighted to find very definite burnt mound material, ye olde black earth, in several areas four and more feet across exposed by livestock and rabbits on the topside. Most definitely it extends far beyond the obvious mound. This material occupies half to, say, two-thirds the field length. Past the actual mound along the cliff’s vertical section the burnt stones become the greater visible content, overlain by large irregular slabs as you near the boathouse end, where the ‘cliff’ peters out. Taking into account the various erect stones protruding along the shore we must surely be dealing with a series of burnt mounds and/or houses. Taking into account that the Bronze Age houses are at water level and below I would suggest that they preceded the burnt mounds.

From the Knowe of Geoso you can easily make out the twin hump of this site as you spy along the fenceline towards Yesnaby. Only a few barred metal gates between the two sites, two-and-a-bit fields, passing by the practically invisible Knowe of Nebigarth along the way. Unlike the Knowes of Nebigarth and Geoso this is named for an individual – presumably like Craw Howe, named for the excavator. Being me I came the hard way, sneaking up on the main mound. Something didn’t quite add up when I compared what I saw with the description.

Approaching from the field’s eastern wall slightly downhill the first mound I came to had a central concavity where someone had dug the top. Looking past this (the much mutilated barrow or the rise?) I saw directly the left-hand hump of the big stuff with the knowe up and over to its right with big stones on top. Finding nothing I proceeded to the Knowe of Angerow itself, circling round taking pictures. No grass lies on the upper part of the mound, it lies bare with a few big stones mostly around the soil’s edge and on the surface. On the very top two slabs over a metre square rest on one another at an angle to the ground supported by just one blocky stone. Despite being rather less than half the size and sitting on a mound the setting reminds me a little of the Stones of Via. To its side some smaller stones lie on and in a low earthen platform (about a metre across) as if this had simply eroded out – it looks too fragile to have lasted long. There seems to be a bank or ditch about the knowe. I am not sure if this is so or whether it is part of the space between the two humps. Could the Knowe of Angerow be the remains of a bell barrow maybe ?

From the Knowe of Geoso you can see the twin hump of the Knowe of Angerow in the Yesnaby direction. Proceeding you go down into the burn shown on the 1:25,000 as going to the Ness of Ramna Geo where there used to be a quarry. Past the curving steep southern bank enter the next field through the gate. Two of the Velziam mounds are simple rises here. The Knowe is in the NW field i.e. the next towards the Loch of Skaill. But from here all looks level pasture. Only coming from the Knowe of Angerow does the prominence reveal itself (looking to the Unigarth souterrain perhaps). All looks green now. Time pressing I await a proper season to seek out traces and mayhap a photo.
The field containing Velzian 27 ‘A’ and ‘B’ is presently stubble. For a vantage point I stood on ‘B’, the nearer to the Knowe, and took a pic of the Broch of Borwick (visible all along my walk from Angeron to Geoso).

On the way to Skaill it struck me that the deep excavation arc could have been taken as a robbed broch wall. Despite modern misgivings as to the mounds composition and location perhaps this was exactly what happened, and the antiquarians were privy to personal accounts that haven’t come down to us (what little we know of Thieves Holm, for instance, are the odd few second-hand references)? Coming back from the Knowe of Angerow popped in here. In one area the most ginormous flat-top mushrooms about six inches across. Looking around a little poking found one of the many stones said to make up this mound. Very distinctly reddened, surely the sign of heating. Considering the number of burns there were on the slopes down from here to Skaill we could well be looking at your typical crescentic burnt mound (te passage and cistoid remains). And its present size could then be down to later additions that changed its nature. Of course it is likely to go even further back, the terminus of a sequence of mounds ?starting with the Knowe of Angerow and continuing with the Knowe of Nebigarth and the Velzian mounds etc.

Two ways to reach this from the road to the Brough of Birsay. An entrance gap by the building you see connects the fields for both mounds. One of these had easy entry by an ‘Orkney gate’. Or so it seemed, as, uniquely in my experience, the securing loop had been hooked into the fence and I only undo what I know I can put back the way it was. The field within which the Knowe of Buttquoy is situated is entered by a barred metal gate, though this too has been further secured with a metal loop (not all Orcadian stock are super-smart, because I have seen an electric fence pass across a similar gate in case any stock might batter this in !). Anyway, I used the latter N.B. a farmer on another occasion informed me that you climb over the hinged end of a gate if you find you have to do this anywhere. The cows were far from me, but still, once past the knowe I went over to the other building and into the field where mounds 2/’B’ and 3/’C’ are. One of these is beside the wall just up from the building (by the bye, these drystane walls stand apart from any I have seen elsewhere, more like masonry in appearance and a distinct orange cast). Though this provided a slight elevation the view of mound numero uno from here ‘told’ me nothing new. Still hurrying, back into the knowe field and up the opposite end from this to where Point of Buttquoy mound 1/’A’ is close to where the track to Skipi Geo runs. Features clearer from inside the field. Still best to come here when the vegetation lies lower. If it ever does that is, he says covering himself.

Two ways to reach this, either an ovine catburglar-proof ‘Orkney gate’ into the field next door then through an opening by the building or the wire-looped metal gate to the site’s field. Used the latter – a farmer has informed me that you climb over the hinged end of a gate if you find you have to do this anywhere. Managed to forget that this mound almost up against the roadside wall was the knowe itself so only took a hurried look (and I thought my digital camera wasn’t focussing, some weird stuff because it wasdoing so). Enough to see what felt like a circular spread of large horizontal stones on the top, invisible from the road as is often the case with such features.

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.

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.

Exploding bunny population taking its toll and seems to be more cattle scarring

At the end of the channel instead of crossing over to Eves Howe turned right and onto the beach. Owing to erosion there isn’t enough cliff outside the fields to walk on at all, the fences and their ‘standing stones’ ready to topple over. A slab fence with barbed wire goes down to the low tide mark and I managed to clamber over a gap and continue on to where the headland is sufficient to climb onto. The mound with its various peaks runs from the field boundary to the very point, completely covered in grass. So I don’t know whether the depressions at the seaward end are from excavation or robbing foundations. On the one hand at the cliiftop the smaller of the two looks more than 2m less, on the other I did see one white earth fast stone in the centre of the larger. I suppose whoever removed the structures could have dug unrecorded into archaeology below. And of course the Long Cairn on the Head of Work does have a later oval cairn inserted in one end which could parallel the sub-circular chamber excavated here. The two (post-mediaeval) boat nausts now look more alongside than into the mound.

In the nearer I could see the walls lining the long sides. The report describes it as walled on three sides with slabs along the bottom. It provided the only dating evidence for the mound, a single Grooved Ware sherd, and the excavator thought the noust built from mound material. Seems strange the sherd came too. So could the material be in situ, part or all of summat previously here? Certainly the fact that stones were found protruding about these two could relate to barrows being built over the sites of previous activity – pity Heritage Scotland hasn’t AFAIK communicated the results of this headland’s geophysics to RCAHMS, only that they exist.

Opposite the Deerness Stores a road goes down to Marwick Bay. On the left are the farm and buildings of Newark, but before you come to this there is a sign for the footpath to Aikerskaill. The grassy path is new since last I was here and is nicely level and broad. Fairly soon you reach two long concrete slabs, laid over the two drystane walls of a bridge through which the ‘drain’ that skirts the landward side of the broch field comes around and meets the shore. The nearer you come to the mound the bigger and blockier the ‘boulders’ about the path and along the field edge. Much then obviously material from the site rather than rounded beach stone.

Going by the record the mound should continue into the next field along, though all I see down the other side is a small pond with a very small cone of land sticking out the centre. In the SW corner the barbed wire fence is just moveable enough to climb carefully over, be sure not to leave the lines tangled.

On the southern side is a line of stones that looks like a wall course. But the left half of this looks to be made out of boulders rather than slabs, though I only took a close look at the right as this is a more obvious line of walling and so may have been misled by loose material. Actually I had the feeling I was looking at the remains of structures of two different periods because of the disparate nature of stones over the mound, and most of the Broch Age material had been removed at some stage. Up on the eastern end earth and stones lie exposed and apparently eroding downhill, a few white boulders on the surface (from the broch?) but mostly dark fragments. In one area here I could make out through the grass bits and bobs of three or more courses of walling. These courses as I saw them were only a scant few inches high. Though I read this as an incurving wall, maybe of the inside of the broch or internal furniture, it could have been a stabilised collapsing wall now incorporated within the mound apart fom this outer face.

Quoyburing is, or was, pronounced Quoyburrian (similar name construction to Quoyburray near Round Howe, although the latter is no longer regarded as a broch).

Rimmed platform cairn with central mound. And these can have one or more kerbs, perhaps explaining the reported stones conspicuous by their present absence.

To get the clearest views of the bank and ditch walk along the side road that leaves the main road as you approach Maes Howe from the east/Kirkwall. They are quite spectacular.