This day though I went near high tide there was plenty of beach and I went down as far as the big WW2 structure. There is a big ole square chunk out of the cliff that had presumably been a quarry, though the bottom is turf now. Climbed up this and found room-sized rectangular depressions. As I went back to No.1 Barrier there seem to be loads of these. Reminded me of the Broch of Lingro settlement which abided beside a stretch of coast from a rectangular bite of cliff to the Scapa Distillery burn. Except that chunk is natural. Perhaps some of the depressions are from the Barrier building period anyway. Also lots of interesting lumps and bumps various sorts, sizes and materials.
wideford
My beautiful wall has completely gone, leaving an aching space like a tooth sucked from the gums.
There are some lovely natural arches here, if only they were not so inaccessible and slippery to approach they would have tons of visitors. Should you come this way watch out for an ?arch in the making, a huge rectangular hole in the coastline going all the way down to sea-level. I’m sure there must be a proper geological term for it.
Finally the coast heads into a deep dip where the promontory is, a truly treacherous place to tread nowadays. Surely if you are building stuff for people you don’t put it opposite a water-holding cup of land. This seems a little strange to me – was it excavated by people themselves for some now obscure reason. Though there are two sites here, The Brough itself and the ‘Covenanters Graves’, opinion is that they are basically one, to whit a promontory fort and outbuildings. You can’t really make anything out, I think unless the grass catches fire or there is a severe drought you are unlikely to see what is recorded. Lots of bumps and hollows that could be structures threaten to trip you up, but basically all you see is grassy tussocks all over. I saw one erect slab in the ‘cup’ (the ‘Covenanters Graves’ section) and one on the promontory fort proper (The Brough). From one place to the other are meant to be features both circular and rectilinear , some in a straight line to the side of a path.
HY23431979 Flatface-aligned stone pair below the cleared area in front of churchyard. Not aligned to the (comparatively modern) church but probably on the same NE/SW alignment as the majority of the fields in Sandwick. 3m apart – the stone at left 1.3x0.5x0.1m in a 1.1x0.5m stone setting, the RH stone 1.2x0.5m.
HY23591895 coming from Skaill Church just before the Skara Brae turning. Standing stone 1.2x0.4x0.1m, round-edged prostrate stone across front 1.0x0.4m.
At last I saw the other side of the ‘bridge’ where the burn meets the coast. It is quite magnificent, the aspect megalithic shining through. If it were not for the timbers I would have no hesitation in saying it is Iron Age at the latest. This side on the left of the waterway there is something reminiscent of a guard cell 1.2x0.8x0.9m beneath the ‘bridge’, but only having two sides it is more of a full-height niche I suppose. Shoreside the passage is 1.2x1.1m, the walling either side extends 1.3m and it is possible there is a RH projection from the base of 1.8m (including beyond the tumble a stone 1m long). There is much rubble of varying ages to the sides, in front of the passage the water makes a small but deep pool which could well indicate an old ground level or simply the original stream bed’s continuance.
Could it be that the timbers were inserted later to make the crossing level, possibly at the same time the area between the two sections of burn was covered over ? Though it could be the remains of a sea-wall sluice, grander and in better preservation than the one downstream of Tankerness Mill, the size of the bridging roof stones does incline me to see this as re-use (the sluices shown on the map below the main road are purely modern as it turns out).
September 28th my objective was to measure and more fully photograph the pit I found before. Now I observed more closely the hole is most probably two spaces, one above the other (a twin ‘cupboard’ ??), and I’m not sure they are fullly box-like. But it is still a thing in itself rather than simply a result of collapsed medial walling (though there is possibly a collapse about one edge at least, where a slab appears to back onto earth). At right angles a jumbled line of stones head towards the excavated area of coastal erosion, specifically to one of the structures. Trying to make sense of my measurements of individual stones in terms of the whole before my film is done and back is not as easy as I thought ! Approximately 0.4-0.7m by 0.3m, the first space overlapping the second a little at the coastward end, and both seemingly 0.3m deep.
Coming down from the mound there are stones poking out of the ground about 15m away. On my last visit I’d seen them as exposed parts of a rocky outcrop but now it looked more like the remains of a (slightly curving ?) man-made line. From where I was it went in the direction of the RH end of the gateway behind which lay my putative stone arrangement one way and off to the coast the other. It stopped being intermittent 4.5m from the cliff edge, then after maybe half-a-metre became the remains of a fairly substantial wall that at the coast turned a right angle left and continued another 7.7m virtually straight. At 0.9m across this looked like the outer wall of some structure. Back home CANMAP showed a line near here that went from a field to the coast and then went on a zig-zag course. Did this show the modern fence line and an idealised boundary or was it this structure (so HY23081980 to 23061976 and ultimately to 23141973) and the intermittent boundary wall I saw further along ? It could be argued that it is simply the large foundation for a vanished drystane wall, but it had a depth to it and the other bits did not go straight, instead hugging the cliff edge sinuously (unlike my ‘corner’). For what it’s worth, a few days later I saw similar lines on CANMAP by the Grimsay Wheelhouse..
Leaving Skara Brae this is along from the second passing place by the Loch of Skaill. Had to remove a veil of grass to ascertain it really was the thing I had previously found. To the right of it a stone is marked with that official bear’s-paw ‘sunburst’ symbol, look for that. Still not 100% certain it is not geological or adapted natural still. IIRC it faces across to a very small unmapped ‘islet’ in the loch. Stone ‘block’; straight 0.7m then ‘niche’0.8m across and then it goes behind at an angle. Enclosing sides 0.5m and 0.7m long and 0.35m high, slab above 0.2m deep.
At the lower end of the Loch of Skaill take the B9055, the road on which you see a phonebox against a house. The site is at the far roadside corner of the field past this. A modest and assuming earthen barrow. Once upon a time a cist was found here. In 1946 it was no longer, but RCAHMS reported a tradition of a chambered structure. In 1967 it was believed this roughly circular mound could well be it. If so it looks as if several stones from the chamber/s have been re-used as there are several over half a metre in the drystane wall alongside that are very out-of-place.
The mound is about 15m across and 1.2m high. RCAHMS also describe it as flat-topped, but this is a relative term. Like most earthen mounds it has a bland covering of grass. Alas I did not walk upon it as a tall ‘Orkney gate’ stood in my way. Not photogenic in itself, it commands a broad panoramic view of the Sandwick countryside about as you can tell even from the roadside.
This ‘dominion’ includes several lochs and many sites of various Ages, including well-known tumuli and tombs. It must surely have been a site of some importance due to these vistas, only the hills above the Loch of Skaill (Kier Fiold and Sand Fiold) overlooking blocking the view somewhat – though you can still see Skaill House and everything to its left from here .
Having finally found a plan of the Broch of Lingro it is obvious that the line of stones outwith the present drystane wall falls within its compass, you can see where the broch structures respect the cliff edge here. Obviously these ‘lines’ precede the wall but what is their relationship with the broch itself, both spatially and temporally? I think it probably went all the way to the Scapa Distillery outlet as there is at least one more such stone along the path closer to there. Perhaps some of the burnside walls relate to it?
After Linnahowe Mound the second leg of the side road includes the track to Upper Garson. There is a standing stone 3.7m up the right of the track 1.4x0.5m. I wouldn’t have seen this if I wasn’t measuring for something else I must say. Past the track junction I found a standing stone HY2326920535 actually incorporated at the bottom of the drystane wall, 0.3m high at the near end and 0.7m the other by o.9m long. Six metres away HY2329320542 was another in the same situation 0.6x0.6m. An order larger than the usual boulder inclusions. When I went back to the first stone the tape measure found something solid. Probably the wall base, perhaps like the one I had just found by the knowe, but the soil about it was practically rock hard so these stones might still go deeper.
There are many standing stones on the headland’s cliff edges, and these seem to be in association with the field boundary as they practically begin and end in tandem with it over the other side of road and track. Most had visible, or at least uncoverable, stone settings. I was reminded of Yesnaby a little, though those bestride the landscape magnificently rather than only hugging the actual lines of the coast.
Age – In the final analysis no-one knows for a certainty.
b: The first stone HY24532843 0.4mx0.3m aligns with the eastern fieldwall and has a low stone and a setting eroding in the cliff face.
c: HY24502842 1.2x0.6m, setting at front 0.3m deep and 0.2m high.
d: HY24452840 1.2x0.6m aligns with the Point of Buttquoy mound 1/’A’ HY24462835 and has a setting extending right and front of it 0.2m. You would expect it to line up with the more prominent Knowe of Buttquoy in the same field but it does not. Point of Buttquoy is decent enough, though the many stones one sees on it are mostly from a far later sheepfold.
e: HY2443240 1.0x0.4m with a complete stone-setting 1.2x0.6x0.1m. In the field opposite this is Point of Buttquoy mound 2/’C’ HY24432826 but I don’t have the two lining up.
f: HY24422819 1.2x0.6m.
g: HY24412817 1.1 (I think,ink damp) x0.5m.
h: HY24462010 1.2x0.5m with a stone-setting 0.2x0.8x0.3m is photogenic, but alas the back is now the cliff face itself. I think it aligns with the eastern wall of the stone-walled field.
i: HY? 1.2x0.5m.
j: HY24582814 1.5x0.5x0.3 with complete stone-setting 0.9x0.5m. Nearly opposite this there is a length of wall inserted where some time past a gate was. Or at least a long gap in the wall filled in. Where the stone-walled field turns the drystane wall itself only continues for a few more metres.
k: HY24602814 1.0x0.6m the last stone 28m from the spot of cliff opposite the field corner.
On the tour of Mine Howe the archaeologist said a lithic specialist had identified the flint chipping as being of Mesolithic manufacture. Though these are obviously re-used they can be read as evidence of a nearby settlement of this date. I wonder how old the relict dunes/shorelines (HY522071) are on the coast towards the Point of the Liddle, and Sandy Howes (HY498067) is a very faint possibility – but I’m probably speaking out of my backside ;-) Or perhaps it should call to mind the stone working site hard by the Unstan tomb.
No pit was found underneath but some kind of slot emerged instead. The holes could perhaps be from a Mesolithic bivouac but could equally well be connected to the kerbed cairn. Unfortunately this trench was just being closed whilst the tour took place and was newly covered by earth when our party reached it.
If you want to know where the cist is when the dig is done simply find the block of stone bordered by two incised lines in the roadside wall and look straight across.
Took the tour today and heard about work on trench G. In part of it they found a very crude stone floor against the ditch. In one corner they found a circular arrangement of upright slabs in which was a baby burial (made me think of the stones downslope of the Long Howe cist, except that is Bronze Age, merely a coincidence). They removed it to search for further structures but regretfully found none.
Went to Mine Howe for the open day and was delighted to hear they were also excavating a Bronze Age cist on Long Howe. Though the general area has possibly suffered damage from livestock it is a little beauty, 50x20 by 50cm deep, atop the barrow at the end nearest Round Howe. I imagine this to be the known cist mentioned in the NMRS.
There is a small area excavated around it and a bigger area downslope, mostly to the left of the cist, in which are exposed several (what for the moment I’d call) flags contiguous in a circular manner. The young lady said they found flint chippings on the cover slab and on the inside, but nowhere else in the vicinity. No human remains have been found as yet, though as the bottom is a bit smashed up they believe these could be in a pit further down still.
What marks the cist out as unusual is that there is no back slab. I was minded on the Nev Hill round cairn. However on re-reading Davidson and Henshall I find that there it was the back slab to a chamber which was absent and an arc of drystone walling thereabouts apparently continues as part of a semicircular rear wall.
Most of the exposed stones are unseen from the road as they are at the back, so I was glad of a chance to finally see them. I don’t know aboot kerbed but it certainly feels a little ‘terraced’ and the lines of stonework, if we may deign to call them that, seem to bear this out. The stones become more obvious as you near the Mine Howe end. In 2005 terracing on the geophysics proved to be from medieval farming.
At HY51010599 they are especially big and present a structured appearance. Two stones are one above another at an obtuse angle, though not fully overlapping, and visible of the top one on the left is 1.8x0.9x0.2m and of the lower one 1.5x0.2x0.2m. There is a space of about half a metre beneath them but no void to be seen, only comparatively smaller stones. To the right of this ‘overhang’ are yet more stones, though I could not tell whether these were in connection with or seperate or perhaps more of that ‘terracing’. P.S. 2005; Though Nick Card said these are more likely to do with the boulder clay there are attached to Long Howe stories of subterranean chambers, so we’ll probably never know for certain.
Came down from St. Margaret’s Hope and took the other end of the Herston road, the one marked Sandwick and Herston. The big pile I came across first on the left was simply a farmer’s spoil heap, the cairn lying shyly by contrast not many yards ahead and the standing stone downhill to its left. Weather mostly damp whilst I was there or I might have tarried further.
Immediately apparent is a roughly circular depression about 5.5x4.4m that I presume to have been left by the ?unofficial excavation, though it certainly has structure beneath. I assume the smallish boulders that I can see about the depression include the NE arc mentioned by NMRS. To the left is one 0.4x0.4x0.3m, at the right back a shaped boulder (some straight sides but not rectangular) 0.7x0.5x0.3m by the fence. On the right three more that include one 0.3x0.4x0.3m. In front of these on the bank of the depression there is an excavated rectangle 1.6x0.9x0.6m whose sides reveal an earth-and-stone matrix.Still looking at it from downhill the cairn seems to tower over you, certainly feels like there was more than a metre of something on the hillside. Can feel stones most places underfoot and wonder if the grass will die back at all to show more later in the year.
Coming down from St. Margaret’s Hope take the other end of the Herston road, the one marked Sandwick and Herston and the stone is very obvious just a little downhill from the road. Nice, clear and calling for a photo. Couldn’t see a setting but there is a dark green grass ring about that might be more. Uphill slightly back from that annular mound is a large boulder, the one mentioned by the NMRS I guess, which I naturally forgot to measure. I think there is another such boulder hidden in the grass about the same distance downhill of the stone. Perhaps there are more. Of course these might have the same origin as postulated for the NE arc at Clouduhall Cairn. Methinks in neither case are these boulders merely thrown up by roadmarking, for surely this would have been from some structure that would have been remarked.
On to the bay side of Skaill House to try and locate the Knowe of Geoso. Even using the map I had a terrible time finding my bearings, as if the two regions of paper and land held only the flimsiest of connections to one another. Walk to the edge of the far house wall corner and look across uphill. It is easy to see the triangular scar of quarrying in the top right corner of a field. The cairn is just by the top right corner of the field diagonally opposite (though outside of it a fraction). Might have made it out on the horizon from here, wasn’t sure. Spent so long thrashing out my bearings making my way through fields of cattle to it felt beyond me. Saw drivers going to Skaill House Farm, which looked a simpler option, but making the grand detour to get onto that road in the time remaining was problematical. So I gave up for now at least.
Up past Skaill Church take a left at the very next junction, a farm road that takes three sides of a square that brings it back to the proper road again. On the first side is the farm track down to Lenahowe. Here is the Linnahowe Mound just as advertised by the NMRS, a long prominent mound occupying most of an enclosure, many stones revealed by the pit but nothing resembling any kind of structuring. I only saw a few stones in the undug bit, nothing you could make anything of in the slightest.
Going towards Skaill Church a tiny stretch of very minor road leaves the B9056 to continue following the coast before a track leads you into the fields to the Knowe of Verron. The track fades away soon but it’s easy going. Don’t mind the cows. I came across a tumbled line of stones going to the coast. A little too spread for a plain wall it seemed to me, and if it had been a curve (it could have been a very slight one I suppose) I would have taken it for part of the boundary of ? a ness-taking or a promontory fort.
Of course the Knowe of Verron HY231198 is a broch, though I harboured slight doubts when I was there. It is in a similarly precarious position to the Broch of Borwick at Yesnaby but without the wall height to keep you out. As I came to the broch remains all I saw was a short grass mound, and in the modern-times excavated cliff edge I could see a gallery wall sticking out. The ‘back’ of the site is well protected by a sharp deep sea inlet to the cliffs, calling to mind the Brough of Bigging in Yesnaby. There are traces of early diggings when you are on the broch (even on the grassy top I was careful). This I found out about back home but this doesn’t tell you about the square pit there, so could it have been revealed not long ago ? Smallish relatively deep slab-lined square pit and stones surrounding the top. Exquisite. [RCAHMS agree a cist is low down the list and suggest that it all could be collapsed medial walling]. Nearer the cliff edge there are other areas of stone I could make nothing of, could find not even the slightest viewpoint to make them worth a photo.
Looking over the cliff at the recorded excavation is a vicarious thrill. I could see the slabs of a rectangular structure and I thought there was something alongside. I could also see the edges of black material coming through the cut, placed there after the exploratory excavation of the eroding section. The weather still being fine and dry I gingerly crept down onto the cliff exposure using some of the bigger stones as lightly as possible in order to disturb nothing. I had hoped from down here that the nondescript stone scatters above might show something but still no. You can still see some of the midden material on the ‘floor’. Looking from left to right there’s the slab-sided structure, the seeming outline only of another structure, some of the gallery wall sticking out (as is often the case with these cliff-eroding sites) and then further up the cliff face a couple of spaced small protruding boulders (including a well-rounded ovoid) that gave the appearance of being the ends of a ‘cupboard’ or niche.
The end of a long confusing day or I could easily have been on to this. From Dounby starting out on the Birsay road and passing the Swartland junction is a significant space between the housing on your right. Look across and there is a burn at the back of a house where you can make out the much mutilated mound, 24m by 1.7m high. Certainly looks more interesting than the last burnt mound I glimpsed about Dounby. No go here but as I came to the end of the gap there was a flat area with a couple of barred metal gates that would have let me get up and around to it.
Seen from afar roadside as it appears to be in a marshy area and the waterloving plants are rather lush at the moment. Stands at the loch edge a little to the west of where the loch connects with the Burn of Kirbuster.
Seen from afar. Quite obvious sticking out into the east shore of the Loch of Boardhouse as you come down to Kirbuster on the road that side. I saw caravans parked on smaller pieces of land in that area so it should be easily reachable. But at the moment the prominent mound is covered by dense vegatation or bushes or else I’d have essayed it.
The first mound is at the top of the stone-walled field in which the Knowe of Buttquoy and frankly is a damn site more interesting. I wouldn’t have identified it from CANMORE if I hadn’t matched it with the NGR from the teeny-tiny circle that must be the circular sheepfold HY24462835. Muddled up as the stones may be I still wisg I could have found the way in – there must be one ! Don’t remember seeing the second mound but the third HY24432826 is in the field next door to the brough side.
From Birsay village going to the Brough of Birsay this mound is difficult to miss on your right. Perhaps my time of the year again, because I could see no features in it. Then again, I couldn’t gain ingress to the field unless I clambered over the wall and risked damage. The best of the Point of Buttquoy mounds is in the same field.
On August 10th I had arrived at Mine Howe as the diggers were coming back from lunch and finally saw in trench E the ovoid structure found at the end of last year’s dig, the neat blocks of an arc of wall at the ‘back’ and a few upright slabs dividing the ‘front’. This was mostly used for the working of copper and copper alloy, with a hearth and a rather small furnce, and may never have stood any higher. It is behind the wall, fairly high up, that the flags were found that lay over the female skeleton.
A new area of the dig alongside being opened up is a long wedge, several metres long and several feet deep at its far end, in which there were only a few stones as yet. I later found out that this was a sounding that had revealed a former slope between the Mine Howe ditch and the site huts which had been filled with a midden consisting of bones and pottery fragments. Carinated pot on the site has pushed the date back to the end of the Early Iron Age.
The next day, having taken my camera this time, they were still having their lunch in front of the site huts. As I headed towards the diggings an officious woman strode out of the custodian’s office and demanded to know what I was doing. Orcadian I thought, but definitely not a native or a blender. So I explained that I wasn’t going onto the excavation, merely taking photos. Did I have permission she asked. Do I need it I said. This stumped her. Re-phrased my query twice and still no answer. So I turned to the diggers and asked them (bellowed rather, I must admit !). Either they couldn’t understand me or they were simply flummoxed. From my two seasons on a dig I do know that there isn’t usually a problem with taking photos except that sometimes technically copyright belongs with the excavators. Finished sites under ownership may have such a policy but it will be prominently displayed. Took my pictures but felt they would have been better the previous day, somehow an incorrect perspective to represent the structure’s features fully. When I went back on the open day Jane Downes informed me that photograph taking is allowed but I am not allowed to post them to the Web.
At the top of the mound, away from the exposed ditch, to the right of the Mine Howe ‘entrance’ and a little beyond the main current excavation, is a smaa digging where I see many little round white pegs in a low square box of stone that looks like a metalworking hearth from the deposits inside – this is another rarity for the site, a miniature iron smelting furnace. It is a very fine structure that I hope you will eventually see on The Orcadian and Orkneyjar sites.
Fine recording of the dig will basically come to a full stop on Thursday, with mostly clearing up the next day.
Coming up from Birsay village take the A967 until the Vinbrake junction and then take that. Cornfield right to the very edge, so a closer look will have to wait several months. The wheat being tall you can only see the tumulus in two places. Fortunately the views being at right-angles to each other partially compensates. Closest to is at the corner of the field behind a Nissen hut, with a big fencepost to rest the camera on – no-one objected at the time to my going to that point. The other view, about twice the distance, is after the road turns left. Though you can see it most of the way going down towards Newan (Newan Chambered Cairn is confusingly not here but beyond Stanerandy near a disused quarry on the hill) look out for a pair of flatface-aligned stones and between there and the fence above Newan you are looking straight across at it.
Coming out of Birsay village take the A966 and go down the Vinbrake turn. The Stanerandy Tumulus lies in a field to the left and very soon the road hangs a right. Instead continue onto the farmtrack at the bend. At a house it turns left again, leave your car here if you have not already done so. The Newan cairn lies up by the field fence of the second field from here but you have to go halfway round the outside to reach it as the barbwire is taut and just too high to go over. Where that side of the field meets the track is a standing stone. A little further along the field boundary is another standing stone that points at an angle. It aims straight for the cairn (one of those little anomalies – the place Newan is actually the other side of the Stanerandy Tumulus f.k.a. Stanerandy Stone). Go around the second field edge and there is an ‘Orkney gate’, lying down across the farmtrack at the time of my visit, where you can see a disused quarry.
From this field corner I made my entrance. Still the site disguises herself as a plain grass mound. Only coming closer to do you see a few small stones scatttered around the base . Once on top more is exposed, pattern emerges. Looking on the fence side (the mound doesn’t go to the fence itself) there is a stone 0.8x0.6m with an orthostat 0.5x0.1m sticking a fraction out of the ground to its top left. to the other side of this is a roughly ring-shaped collection of stones 1.6x1.8m the most obvious of which is 0.8x0.3m. Possibly part of this are two apparent orthostats to the direct left at right-angles to each other, like sides of a cist (0.5m along the shorter edge) maybe.
The lower of the two parallel lines of the burn as it passes NE of the community centre. Unlike the other stone walls line the sides to a height of 1.4m at a distance apart of 4m. But where it passes under the road the bottom is lower, giving a total height of 2.5m. So the main dimensions are the same as those of the Kirk Ness Dyke themodernantiquarian.com/site/6446 and it would appear to bear the same relationship to the Round Howe “pseudo-broch” themodernantiquarian.com/site/5630 as that does to the coastal Kirk Ness mound themodernantiquarian.com/site/6434. Which would appear to make it a drystone dyke boundary and cru also.
Just beyond the coastal Kirk Ness mound I found a deep straight channel coming to the coast, where it is ‘sealed’ by drystane walling at ND47439119. To me it screamed vallum. Though I think of it as V-shaped because I had to through the tape measure out to get the full depth the sides were too steep for me to risk going down alone. As it is now it is 4m across by 2.5m high and there are stones along the top. If the Kirk Ness Dyke is one boundary of whatever the mound is then a brown standing stone I’d passed already was likely marking the other. Having another site incorrectly placed by me I looked for it by climbing over a drystane wall field boundary using more than adequate set of stiling stones. Where the dyke turns a bed of yellow flag, not in bloom, would seem to mark the vanished loch’s edge. So did the dyke (described in NMRS as drystone dyke boundary and cru) seperate the mound from the loch, keep the mound within, both or neither ?
Below St. Peter’s Church in South Ronaldasy is a storm beach of large stones of all shapes. Even above the shore there are many, increasing in frequency as you progress to Kirk Ness. You think of standing stones being quarried and shaped but here they are, like an open-cast mine for megaliths of all shapes and sizes. Perhaps this is why the Sorquoy Stone is so big, not importance, purely material to hand. Such an abundance marks this area as mucho importante surely. Near the beginning a relative few stones are upright, including some about a depression in a rise ND472908. Despite the orthostats Kirkhouse Cairn is, as I surmised when I saw it, not for the dead.
The next rise along from Kirkhope Cairn is another Kirk Ness mound ND47389117 “locally believed to be ancient”. A single stone sticks out of the top visibly. If one boundary is the Kirk Ness Dyke just beyond then the other boundary is likely to be where a brown standing stone marks the corner of a field.
Can be reached by reached by two slightly different routes. If no-one objects I would say now to take the track that goes up the RH side of Roeberry House and past the quarry. The one I took was what appeared a more direct route further down, a fraction past Roeberry farm. Climbing over the rope-tied metal gate the farmtrack goes halfway up the hill where it becomes obscured by pasture. At the beginning of the second field was a stream outlet fallen into disarray, the dark brown stones marking it out as mediaeval or later. The stream and its walling ran across the hill to come to a halt near the corner here, well seperated from the fieldwall itself. The ?culvert (what I still think of as bridges myself) points downhill (perhaps aligned with The Wart), so my description is possibly incorrect. There are two large slabs across the top and the nearer has a large-ish semicircle out of the edge. A slab on the left has a small circular hole. Taking a second look at the arrangement I wonder if the slabs aren’t fallen orthostats. Maybe the ?culvert is a water tank or something. So unlucky to see it in this state. In explanation I now see a well marked on the map further up the field on the wall side.
This field where you can only sense the ruts of the farmtrack I can also feel stones, the remains of a wall or the hardpack of the track I suppose. At the top of the field I had to slip gingerly over the barbwire-fence at the extreme corner where there is a slight rise to effectively reduce the height that vital few inches. Here’s where it got tricky because of an expanse of gorse directly ahead. Tried a few ways to pass amongst the shrubbery but only succeeded in getting everything below the knees completely soaked. Quite a few stones in the area, making me consider whether this actually was my target. No. Eventually had to give in and go round to the right. Here I came upon the disused quarry, continuing to get damp the while. Above the lip I saw an earth section with some small stones that might just possibly represent a former structure here if not simply my wild imaginings. At the top end of the quarry is the farmtrack I should have taken. Visible and dry !
My thoughts were that The Wart would be gone or under cover or not up to much. Certainly hard to find. But there stood the chambered cairn exactly where the map showed it (ND433935), smack behind the triangulation pillar. A stone cairn with a circular wall incorporating slabs (I noticed a void under one at the left) and a slab coming towards the centre from the right (the interior was excavated down to floor level). There is a platform about it which seems deeper from behind owing to the building of a water tank (whose wooden superstructure looks like a very fancy bird hide). There are stones on the platform (I didn’t spot a rough modern wall about the central depression so I hope it isn’t the one I saw ;-), stones behind it and stones in the gorse. There must be something going on besides a quarry and the cairn site.
Not much I can add at present as on the day the mist was often heavy and the site lies in a probably marshy area. The site is visible coming down the road to Kirkhouse and all along the coast from there. To get there would seem to require a time of year when only grass occupies the field about.
I did try to get there going by the drystone wall past the other Kirk Ness mound on the coast, where the bed of yellow flag just where the Kirk Ness Dyke turns probably indicates the old loch shoreline (the Kirkhouse Burnt Mound at ND47169119 stood by the far edge of the same shoreline), but even that pasture soaked me below the knees and seeing no features through my binoculars I gave up the attempt.
Its one-time ascription to a Danish fort does make you think broch, especially as a local farmer found a “Pictish house” over by Manse ( 3’ wide, 2 1/2’ wide, 11’ long and neatly paved. Most likely a souterrain, quickly reburied). But if it was rather on an island then the two site-types that it could be are a crannog (like the ones at Voy) or a causewayed island dun (as Wasdale supposedly is). Might be none of these.
Coming out of St. Margarets Hope take the Eastside road down all the way the crossroads and pass over to the Wheems Hostel road. The fence beyond Sorquoy carries on either side of the road, the stone is incorporated into the barb-wire fence of the field on your left. Meet grandad. A block of red sandstone 4.4m high, 0.8m wide, 0.45-0.55m thick, with some packing at the bottom.
Lest you think size is important I should point out that the shore below here is like an open-cast mine for standing stones – why quarry when you can simply lift them from the ground, it’s comprehensively littered with stones of all sizes above the storm beach.
This is on the right topside of the mound on the ridge nearest the drystane walls. The two uphill slabs are virtually complete, giving a size of 1.2x0.8m. The longer slab points fairly straight uphill, so a N-S orientation I think. These two slabs are only slightly out of joint, the cause in the long ago perhaps a 0.6x0.1m stone showing not far above the lower end. I saw no sign of the other end slab but 0.35m of the other long slab can still be seen standing up 0.2m. Soil and grass comes maybe halfway up the inside of the cist.
The present 1:25,000 shows them just past Garlaine but there is now a bungalow nearer still. Before I reached the gate my eyes were taken roadside by a standing stone and setting HY28452894. A mini s.s. at only 0.9x0.17x0.1m, though probably extending underground which would make it even slimmer. Modern ?? Made me wonder if some bigger stone had been removed at some stage – this day I saw several modern concrete pillars in similar associations, passing curious. Like Via this setting is in front of the stone. The visible base of the standing stone is level with its top. Both standing stone and the abutting stone (0.45m long) are at right angles to the road, and then a stone 0.5m long is parallel to it. 0.47m from the abutting stone what I read to be one end of the setting is mostly buried – what shows a mere 5cm above the grass is 0.2m long. Underfoot you can feel the stones of a wall beyond the setting.
I always prefer to climb over gates, but this one is chained anyway. The downhill mound has a scrape in the top, though this could be rodent damage (rabbits are rodents too). At the top of the hill are the other two mounds. That on the left is another disappointment. Though there are more patches of bare earth this could still be the results of animal, rather than human, excavators. Probably the latter making digging easier the the former. Looking to the last mound from this one I was heartened to see a few stones protruding from the far side. Still it came as a very pleasant shock to find that these were part of a cist (Usually new observations from a watching brief are passed on by Historic Scotland to RCAHMS, but 8 years ago this one slipped the net, hence its none appearance on the NMRS till my observation). The two uphill slabs are virtually complete, giving a size of 1.2x0.8m. The longer slab points fairly straight uphill, so a N-S orientation I think. These two slabs are only slightly out of joint, the cause in the long ago perhaps a 0.6x0.1m stone showing not far above the lower end. I saw no sign of the other end slab but 0.35m of the other long slab can still be seen standing up 0.2m. Soil and grass comes maybe halfway up the inside of the cist. Coming off the mound HY284290 you could see the roundness of it and there is a ditch. At first I thought this too curved around the mound, but then it went over to the corner of a drystane wall – perhaps it is a robber trench ? However further down the road there is a ridge going across the hill. Could it and the ditch both be part of the site, a demarcation about the site ? I do feel there is more going on here than just those three mounds, a barrow cemetery would be luverly.
Crossing the coastal fields to Castle Howe the vegetation was tall and rank, making this is the worst time of the year to investigate such a ruinous or fragmentary site. I never learn. Couldn’t really tell what was underfoot, seemed to be channels and/or ruts of some type as I neared the hill. Coming up my feet encountered a multitude of lumps and bumps and I appeared to be climbing over different levels on the hill, putting me strangely in mind of Wideford Hill Cairn. What a struggle to reach the top it had been. Be very careful going about the summit still. Once there I found it took a while to tell the chamber wall from the outer protection of the excavator’s wall. Rather disappointing. The inner area looked like a rockfall and I wasn’t aware of seeing any steps at the time. Mindst you the modern wall isn’t weathering well either. Just about worth it still.
Approaching Via from Brodgar today I noticed just before the Via B&B a large chunk of stone with a reddish cast in parts. Over the way is what used to be a fair size quarry so it might be simply one that got away. Then on my way back I took another look at the dip that it was in, and seeing the rise against Via thought “ha-ha, settlement mound”. Looked it up on Canmore and found that in the 19th century a cist (since gone) was found in this barrow. So where that ‘boulder’ lies is perhaps the scar of excavation.
Up past Fursbreck Pottery I took a left onto the minor road that wends its way to Ballarat House. At Caperhouse I took another left.Coming towards Furso I was on the lookout on the same side for several tumuli but only saw modern agricultural mounds. One in particular (NMRS record no. HY31NW 53) has a sandpit on the top with a few stones poking up. Couldn’t find it ; apparently did but my map addition proved false. Thought I detected it in a couple of stones in summer vegatation beside the road at HY311165 and didn’t realise my error until my return. These were in front of Maesquoy to the right of a wooden direction sign for Furso itself. The nearer one, 0.54m high and 0.44m wide narrowing from a knee to 0.2m, is about 30 degrees offset from a road alignment. 0.4m away is a taller stone, 1.2m by 0.3m, that nearly parallels the road. They are alone as far as I was able to ascertain.
Had a bit of time on my hand before the Knowes of Trotty tour so paid this a visit. Even CANMAP is ever so slightly misleading, for the fence that was my guide is actually smack opposite the Grimeston signpost on the Stoneyhill road below the Staney Hill standing stone. The two tumuli in the first field (Feolquoy barrows HY3174155) do have a few nice stones on the surface. There is a tumulus in the field opposite the one behind them (probable barrow Feolquoy mound HY 317157). Only I didn’t notice it because my attention was taken by the immense stones in the field I passed through. Felt as if they were all over the field, like the fallen remains of a giant castle. Some kind of rocky outcrop I guess. And on the surface loose foot-deep slabs left over from the giant’s dominoes. Surely at some stage nature here has been added to by man. One of the slabs someone may have thought to remove as it has a smooth-bored hole that has to be fairly modern.
Unfortunately I was unable actually to go into the field with the tomb as both sides of the fence are heavily guarded with electricity. Actually if I’d had time and courage there was a spot some way down the hill that I could have snuck through. Several decent areas of stonework revealed. This tomb is an heck of a big ‘un and it actually goes through into the next-door field – the NGR is for the field at the right.
Surprised these aren’t already on. But it is a bit of a yomp. Went on a guided walk with the Orkney Archaeological Trust. Because the area covered by these 11 cairns is now under management (hence the falling through of funding for further excavations this year) you can no longer reach here through Netherhouse byre but have to go the long way around via the Howe Road. The way through the heath is a ways past the Howe Farm turnoff and on your right. The rough and intermittent path leading to the ‘cemetery’ isn’t signposted so it is fortunate that they stand out. Owing to all the moss and heather it is a very bouncy walk -thankfully duckboards have been placed along the worst patches of the swampy bits now.
They aren’t much to look at – I would have been content to take a group picture at the first suitable place and gone back, myself. The cairns were constructed using natural drumlins as platforms. Though many were excavated by ‘barrow-diggers’ only the one with the golden discs was in any sense recorded. The 2002 excavation by Jane Downes, our guide, besides numerous cists in one of the cairns revealed in a flat area between two of the cairns some kind of building – perhaps a mortuary structure. In the Bronze Age the settlements were tiny and usually within a kilometre or two (so look about you if you visit). I think that from here you can make out the Knowes of Trinnawin tumuli on the west side of Hindera Fiold. From the cairn nearest Netherhouse at one spot two of the hills almost form a continuous flat skyline.
On the road out of Fort William that goes to the two Stiell Falls you have Ben Nevis on your left and Nevis Forest on your right. Go along this road as far as the peat track that is part of the Cow Hill Circuit in the forest. At the top where it meets the West Highland Way several directions are signposted including that for 2.8km (ha, ha) to this vitrified fort. A long steady walk along the forest road.
Eventually you reach the point where the signpost points to the Dun Deardail track off the West Highland Way. You go over the most incredible turnstile, of such a size you could literally take a pram over it – except the track is strictly for the feet. It is basically a gravel path consolidated by black bags of something spongy underneath, so that you have the strange (and at times disconcerting) feeling of walking on a deep forest floor.
Just before the fort is a big hill called An Dun despite being nothing of the sort, purely natural. At one marshy spot there is a duckboard walk. I cannot recommend this site to anyone that is not either very sure of foot or else foolhardy – you imagine beforehand someone will have made a level route straight into the interior of Dun Deardail but instead find yourself clambering up the steep sides on a not-quite-straight stony path. The narrow path is composed of different materials, the right hand section (below the level of the left by several inches) is all fragmented planes of presumably bedrock whilst the left is small boulders and rocks, the right all grey but the left of differing hues not all owing to vitrification. I think in far drier weather climbing over the turf would have been my choice instead. Once you do reach the top its mostly depression, with a narrow outer circuit at the edge of the sharp drop about the site.
There are what appear to be reasonably sized structures around the edges of the interior but my view was rather damp and this really is the wrong season for a major recce unless you can get around nettles and such.
Dun Deardail is one in a line of vitrified forts that stretches from Craig Phadraig outside Inverness all the way down to the West Coast. Most of its names refer to a fancied connection with Princess Deirdre (see miscellaneous) but it is also known as Dun Dearg Suil ‘Hill of the Red Eye’. This has been read as a reference to usage as a beacon hill when surely one could as well read in a folk-memory of its vitrification or an astute inference by analogy that this had happened.
Went further down the Burn of Hatston (which flows over bedrock throughout its length) and found more water furniture where it greets the sea (HY43511300). Here the burn is ?deeper/wider and is bridged by two immense slabs (the nearer 2.2x0.4x0.25m, the furthest 2.5x0.8x0.3m ) with a reasonable 2.8m gap in between . On the right-hand side a lovely white drystane wall lines the burn but on the other side there is nothing but a few sandy stones in the bank until the bridge is reached (though a finger of sod and earth about the height of the wall projects out into the burn from it). Passing strange. The remains of a few large timbers can be seen betwixt and between the slabs and the bridge is wall-lined either side. Couldn’t get past the barb-wire fence to view it from the shore, and though the waters were low enough to walk under the bridge I could not risk slipping on the bedrock as I was on my own. It is 0.9m between the bridge walls, they are 1m high but the bedrock that the bridge sits on accounts for 0.2m of that on the left.
All told I wonder if this is the remains of a sea-wall sluice, grander and in better preservation than the one downstream of Tankerness Mill. In which case maybe the ‘structure’ upstream here is what Click Mill looked like before it was rebuilt in the 19th century ?? Which, unfortunately, though it further confirms the importance of the Burn of Hatston area would put the burnside furniture outwith TMA’s remit. But a later visit shows the main body of the bridge precedes the possibly early industrial features.
The crag of Dun Deardail is 700’ high and the fort is 925’ above sea level. So it might be easier, though taking longer, to follow the Way through Nevis Forest ! The Way has the nearest turn-off down to the main road at Dun Dige.
From The Hillock I decided to try for the Snaba Hill Cairn at HY35221470 (Snaba Hill Cairn & Mounds RCAHMS NMRS Record no. HY31SE 10). Back into Finstown then down to the road that snakes round the mill. As you pass the mill look across The Ouse at the shoreline base of the dump sticking out into the ‘pool’ and tell me those huge stones don’t scream archaeology at you. Around the shoreline here is a black stone pavement and also two standing stones on their lonesome many metres apart. Near the top of the climb a track turns off from the road back over the hill. Follow this all the way to a junction and take the upper line that goes behind Binnaquoy. The first thing I noticed was a small dome cairn sitting atop the far right of a huge band of quarry stone. Even if I had been prepared the combination of the hill’s steepness and the many outcrops and quarries (not all obvious even with hindsight) makes mapreading rather haphazard. So I don’t now even now if I found the sites !! Anyways, at the tracks end (after taking a couple of shots and debating whether to go back or no) I stepped up to the field fence, took tight hold of the wires wrapped round a post, and cautiously swung myself over the barbwire gate. Up to the fence along the top of the field where my two new targets lay. The other side was the quarry outcrop. To its left unfortunately just the other side of the fence was the mound that could have been Snaba Hill Cairn. But that was distinguished by the tops of a circular ring of stones splayed outwards whereas this (?HY352146) had many stones over it and when I went to the right end and looked at the back there was a chunk out at the lower end with a very neat open-ended box wall inside it. At the top end of the fence was a large spanking-new shed so for now I curtailed further investigation. Along the lower side of the track back down was the other seeming mound (?HY354145). The record for Snaba Hill Cairn does mention mounds to its NE. Some mound seen previously were not found later so perhaps these are they misplaced ?? Just as with Paerkeith over the alley mounds are specifically mentioned at 200m and 350m datum and I wonder if there is a significance to that.
4th October, 2004: Now sealed over, most likely filled in too.
17th June, 2004: Went back again to clarify the position and this is definitely the O.S. map well, the upper edge of the track being the old field boundary. The stone from on top has joined its brethren in the waters and this has allowed a better view of the uphill section.
4th June 2004: Over in Tankerness a site marked as well on the O.S. map (at HY5110608523) has been quite literally uncovered. As you go down the hill to Tankerness Mill you come to various Whitecleat buildings and when you reach the end of this complex on the other side is a new house. Below this is a track and sometime since mid-afternoon Wednesday someone has broken through the top of a structure. The aperture is 0.7m square internally and at least 1.4m deep (one metre down there is water), at the bottom is a large stone and soil from the collapse. The base of the top side is a large grey stone, the upper courses consist of sandstone corbelling. Down at the other end the appearance is squared off. The bottom side is sandstone drywalling but it could be secondary to block off a larger extent. So though it has probably been used as a well I feel this is a very late usage for a Neolithic or Bronze Age something. I assume that it will be filled in soon, so my photos will be the only record (even though I have taken the precaution of informing an appropriate official here).
Second visit, June 7th. Is it me or is this a very unusually shaped well. (Almost) five-sided because the bottom of the uphill side is either two stones 0.8m and 0.5m or one biggie with an obtuse angle. I thought perhaps these black stones could be bedrock but there is the same kind of stone at the bottom of the other, straight, sides. But nevertheless I think it is/was a wellspring – in the Neolithic the Loch of Tankerness being only 1m deep was much further away than it now appears. The big stones only start appearing 0.6m from the top. The drystone roof at either end seems to mimic their shape, the uphill end being corbelled for its top 0.4m whilst the downhill is square on and 0.3m deep. At the bottom end it projects 0.6m over the wall and at the top end perhaps slightly less. As to the sides’ composition one has the drystone walling and then fragmented big stones, the other I’m only sure of the drystone walling above. Which makes the downend less certainly a blocking even though it is the only wall to be drystone all the way down to the measurable well base.
Go into Finstown and take the road to Evie. Go out of town and you can’t miss the pillbox. This sits on The Hillock (RCAHMS NMRS Record no.HY31SE 4). At the near end is a space going down to the shore. To the left is a square modern wall and from there looking across its nature was plain as a pikestaff, that familiar broch outline revealed. I went down on the shore to see if there was a nice vertical section but the lumps of tarmac sticking out a foot below the clifftop disabused me of any such notion. Maybe further along, but I was restricted to how far I could go. So I came back and followed a path over the rise of the near end that may have been the double wall. Up to the pillbox for a looksee. To the shoreside of this are the visible wall remnants and the ‘cell’ revealed by a minor dig relatively recently. You can make out some passages and an entrance. There is even a little exposed walling. It was very dangerous getting photos because the grass hides holes, a couple of pieces of wire-frames and abundant nettles. Gingerly letting myself down to the passage floor I was always finding myself reaching out for grass holds that then revealed nettles. The walling you can see from the pillbox is a scant course or two high but when you are down in the passage looking back the cell shows itself several courses high owing to that excavation.
Continue along the Hawell road and you come to a spot where a church on the hillside overlooks a tiny disused quarry. just at the end you turn tightleft at the junction. At the top of this section of road is a thriving farm with modern sheds, immense by Orkney standards. At the back right corner you can see a long mound (HY509067) of bare earth of comparable size to the fence. This is liberally covered with stones, of which many are bloody big. I have photos but this is simply tons of material dumped from somewhere else. No, my site is a rather slighter mound in the field along which the road turns again. It lies towards the upper right corner of this field. On this same side a large-scale map marks a well. Nothing thus far along the road has a NMRS.
Before leaving Kirkwall as you reach the Hatston Industrial Estate junction take the lower road till you reach the turnoff for the new pier. Beyond you see a field fence on the same side. Walk towards it and you’ll see the burn going down to the shore which you now follow. It is very rough pasture with hidden holes and barely buried bits of woodwork along the way. The burn at this the beginning points straight at the middle of a mound. Saverock burnt mound is RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY41SW6 at HY43481280. About 20m away from the edge of the mound the burn turns slightly to the left.
What you come to is a grassy mound a couple of metres high. No features at all (though apparently it is a channel cut across the top that revealed the burnt material). RCAHMS say it is a wonder how it survives so untouched in this area, so we shouldn’t grumble really. From the top I could make out a slight small ditch about the mound but felt it to be a modern development.
So what took my fancy was a set of features at the point where the burn takes a turn (HY43461277), date unknown. Most of the way from Yairsay the Burn of Hatston is lined by drystane walls, no sign of a break apart from the bridge below Yairstay. But here it does intriguing things. About 9m down from a wide turf-covered bridge a slab of stone bridges the water (is it a clapper bridge?), near the top of the walls and inset to their sides. It lays horizontally and I wonder if this is how the slab at Burn of Swannay once lay too. A metre past this the right wall turns at a right angles, straight until the end curved round a little. About 4.5-5m further on it is mirrored, except that this wall goes across the water as another wide turf-covered bridge, though of better construction than the first. Hereabouts the walls are thicker than elsewhere, for opposite where the first wall turn is lies a wall inset about 1.3m long, and this is set half-way back into the wall a scant few courses above the stream. Even though there is a chunk of concrete between the wall-turns the arrangement is definitely original with the drystane walling. On a later visit I found another place, further upstream, where there is a similar ‘crossroad’ of wall.
Down from the mound, almost at the shore, was Saverock Souterrain (HY43681296, HY41SW 5), that Petrie had down as a broch. And the Hatston Airfield Souterrain (HY43621238, HY41SW 3) wasn’t too far away. So obviously this area has always been important.
Look from here in the direction of Finstown and the long arm of land includes the site of the Crossietown Neolithic settlement and recently excavated Ramberry chambered cairn (HY42401363, gone). Though it seems to hold watch over the Bay of Kirkwall there was no broch there (Ingshowe lies further towards Finstown). But unseen around the hill Quanterness did have a roundhouse, so perhaps this explains the lack ?