Look up at Quanterness Farm and the site is at the sub-rectangular plantation off a corner of the house just to its left (a plantation that I mistook for pasture when I looked on CANMORE the morn). The way I went was up a track before the farmtrack itself and then turning right at the modern little house. The plantation gates are scrappy and if it had not been attached to the big house a looksee might have been in order. But I figured there would be nothing to see under all those trees and left. Retracing my steps as I went round the corner I took a last look back and thought I saw the mound peeping through the trees at me. So if you’re desperate to notch this one on your belt you can.
wideford
Prominent on the hill as viewed from the shore, a little further along than St.Peter’s Kirk. 16m E-W by 18m, most of it is grass-covered but (at least now) higher up is bare and there are some stones on its top. Even with binoculars there is no definite shape to them. It is probably a settlement mound and there is apparently suggestion of a level platform to the south. Down at the uppermost shoreline there is at the land’s edge levels like those I noted in the cliff’s edge to the right of the Scapa Distillery outlet (Broch of Lingro). There is hereabouts an angle of drystane wall jutting out that may be something more than that. You cannot get to the site from the coast owing to a very taut barbwire fence along the coast. A better bet is probably the farmtrack to Ness of Campston.
It was by going up a wide ditch, presently dry, knee-deep in vegatation that I reached the end of the field with the Leafea stones. From here I could fill my camera with their image. After getting back I realised that the way chosen was the worst of several to reach Leafea and Brockan (it strikes me with hindsight that the best way is likely to be not to go down the turnoff to Warebeth but instead continue along to where the Outertown road takes a sharp turn and go around the field edges at that point). The two standing stones (1 & 1.2m high) are at right angles to the coast, earthfast. Not part of the arrangement were a couple of natural boulders of which one filled the gap.The story goes that a dog unearthed human bones at the stones’ base. Now the uppermost stone is part of the barb-wire fence. It is often difficult to fathom why some stones are chosen and loads of others aren’t. Just behind where I stood (HY23040928) is one of decent height, either side of where ditch meets coast are another two (HY22980917,HY22990917) and I think I remember another on the way up. All these ones differ from Leafea by being the usual taller than they are broad.
HY54040403
Passing Comely I saw some stones together at a field edge. At first I thought it was a small pile dumped there. On closer inspection they are all part of of a short earthen mound and not one of modern appearance. At the cliff edge behind it is a standing stone. Looking into the bay there is very close to shore a shallow area (HY54050403) in front of which is a line of stones that isn’t fieldwall.
HY54010382
Where the Comely track first skirts the shoreline a very short earthen ramp comes down. To the right of this are some thin slabs under the track. Looks at first like a wall of a cist. Not a wall because the walls along the coast here are even drystane courses. Indeed the slabs were backed up to one such – the wall has an apparent termination at the structure’s RH end but it goes behind it. Against the bottom of the RH end I saw a modern rusty waterpipe of several inches diameter, though this discharges alongside not inside the flat area in front of the slabs. Here the 1:25,000 shows a well. So could it be the remains of a tank ?
My first picture of Brockan I shot from the northern end of the Leafea Stones’ fence. I took several more from nearer the Outertown road later but I think that the pictures will show it looks better from below. Even on CANMAP this is still down as a chambered tomb. Understandable for the size. But a partial excavation found two chambers each with a short passage leading to a common paved stone-walled enclosure (I am reminded that at least one beehive structure used to reside in Breck Farm’s stackyard). So CANMORE says present thinking is a secondary broch settlement or a small Skara Brae type village. Despite, or perhaps because of, the proximity of both Warebeth and Breckness I don’t quite buy it as the former.Three stones still protrude from the top. I tried several other tracks to approach it but none came much closer (it strikes me with hindsight that the best way is likely to be not to go down the turnoff to Warebeth but instead continue along to where the Outertown road takes a sharp turn and go around the field edges at that point). Looked at from the road there appears to be a possible something in the field to its left, though admittedly only a possible cropmark. There used to be a Brockan Standing Stone at HY23140987.
Brockan and my suspect share the same 6-figure NGR. There is a spring next to Brockan and a well close by my suspect. About the same distance from my suspect as that is from Brockan, at HY233096, a cist with three bodies was found in a probably natural sandy knoll in 1845.
“Almost entirely destroyed” all that is left is visible on the eroding cliff. It may be very little compared to what was once there but there is surely value in a vertical section that gradually reveals itself without any person having to excavate it ! A watching brief by archaeologists would provide useful results in time. And it goes a long ways along the cliff, over two points of the coast. Either side of the central broch there is 20~30m of settlement, and the broch itself nearly 12m diameter. Apparently there is a slice of a chapel in there too, which I wish I had known at the time. The most obvious structures at this stage in its unveiling are slab-sided floor drains. My photos will tell the story better – all comparitive clarity after Ingshowe and Berstane.
Nearer Comely than Campston this very low round “indeterminate mound”, originally down as a burnt mound without reason, is an insignificant lump in the nearer corner of the field that also holds St.Peter’s Kirk, and to the right of a big field boundary drain. Didn’t see any of the “protruding large stones” meant to be atop it but saw what struck me as many more stones than just the slumped fieldwall alongside down the ‘cliff’. To the left of the drain you might make out two boggy nausts, long disused and one partially infilled in case you wonder then what they are.
Seen from behind it does resemble a broch with tower slightly more. What is certain to me is that it is nothing like the Ring of Bookan, the ringwork is just that. You can see that how close it would have been to the water’s edge when sea-levels were higher. This time I had a closer look at the part of the site the other side of the farmtrack. Though overall lower than the putative broch side there is evidently a lot more going on in terms of structures, many obvious lumps and bumps. Doesn’t need much of a look to see where a stream passed by the edge of the site, a circumstance that by now feels diagnostic to me of a cliffside broch (those further uphill we presume to have had wells, though we never did find one at The Howe and joked that it lay under the site hut!). There do, though, appear to be a couple of very small bumps the other side of this . It is possible the site continues up to the farm roadside as there are probable structures just below there, either that or a slght relocation in later times.
Actually you are unlikely to get to this the easy way as this approach, which starts at a wartime road below Water Board property, requires mounting two gates. Moth & Jane went through Work farm but make sure this is not lambing time. This is a long (h)low mound [153’x40’x6’] with four horns. At the summit a cavity contained slabs set on edge. At the higher end are massive flagstones on edge or on end appear at irregular intervals. They are perpendicular to the axis except for the taller one at the E end which is at a different angle.
Not named on the 1:25,000 is a stretch of the cliffs N of Long Cairn called The Castle, almost a stack
A curious sequence of stones on the RH side of the road to Yesnaby. They go up the hillside towards the right of South Seatter farm. Not from a ‘standing stone fence’ as they face the road, though still possibly each a part of a fence of its own. Not a stone row as they aren’t in anything like a straight line. Maybe just my fancy rather than a real entity ?? When I first saw them I marched off the road and down among the boggy tussocks to obtain a better picture. For any that follow me I say continue along the road as no distance ahead lies a farm track up to South Seatter that will provide a more stable viewpoint for photos.
Unfortunately it was tipping it down with rain and I was focussed on the forts ahead so the NGR could be wrong. This standing stone is the first I saw on the LH side of the road to Yesnaby and the only one photographed. Standing in apparent isolation but below it can be seen a small clump of stones that could be associated or merely wall remains. There were a few more of its general shape and size further along the hill – well at least a couple more – so this may be what still exists sparsely of a ‘standing stone fence’ (there are several fully populated ones between the car park and at least as far as the Broch of Borwick.
There is meant to be a cist in the SE quadrant of the Stones of Via ditch. What I found was well to the right of the stones however, so I presumed it to be my error for the aerial ‘socket’ until I saw on CANMAP that it isn’t even “in the ballpark” for this. There is a waterlogged patch of ground going uphill and the feature is at the top of this. On CANMORE a mound HY21NE 4 formerly stood at HY260159 and in relation to my find it is worth noting that in 1928 a mound of stones (now gone) at the south edge of a pool of water was presumed to be its remains.
RCAHMS archaeology survey section believe this cist may only relatively recently have come to the surface.
This used to be in the field to the left of Scapa Distillery. The broch tower itself was levelled in 1981, along with the immediately surrounding area, but points of interest still remain – as do unexcavated settlement mounds from there back to the main road at least. The most visible evidence of the broch lies either side of the stream outlet as it reaches the shore and cascades down (see photos).
As you go up the cliff path to here you will notice a feature, 14m across and taking in an area out to the cliff edge 11m at furthest point, that itself looks like the remains of a broch or somesuch; a place where the cliff goes out and there is a ditch 1.8x1m like a sector of a circle, and within its arc a flat area 6x4.8m. As I can only see earth and sod and it isn’t shown on CANMAP we may perhaps safely call it a simulacrum? The LH edge of the arc goes 6m straight to the cliff edge. HY436088
If you pass over the bridge and up the other side you will need to watch your step the rest of the way – a teenager fell from near here just recently in damp conditions. There is another curious feature just past here inside where the lichen-covered wall turns for a few metres before resume its coastline track. At the point where it first turns (HY434087) there is a short line of regular-shaped stones darker than the wall, level with the path and over which you narrowly pass. Then up between where the wall turns again and its next juncture (HY433087) similar lines of like nature can be made out. Being on the coastline side of the decaying cliff face I assume that this predates the present wall. If this feature were angled away from coast I would have no doubt it represents the walls of a structure, but unless it is very ancient I am at a loss as to what it can be ( why no lichen on the stones for starters !). P.S. Going back today I noticed to the landward side of the ‘simulacrum’ a very small ditch I could walk in parallel to the present drystane wall about the same distance from it as these stones so wonder if it is the same feature this side of the burn also, whatever it is.
Down on the coast one can see more evidence of settlement at the top of the cliff face on the stream outlet’s immediate right, though I wasn’t convinced until I saw it today in the light of recent visits to other brochs. Above where the cliff’s stone ends 3.9m up is a layer of what looks like cultivated soil and a thin line going straight across, very reminiscent of the broch bases at Ingshowe and Berstane. There are the odd few stones to be made out in this ?matrix. But it is the next layer, that under the grass, that has finally convinced me now that I have made it out clearly. This is a layer several inches thick made up of nothing but angular fragmented small stones (and possibly man-made material as though there are red rocks on the Scapa shore there are none up the cliff-face this side of the bay except here) several inches deep. Unless my eyes decieve me this is most likely to be a destruction layer. The total area is 8.7m long and something under 3m deep. HY435088
Apparently two though only one registered with me. In the same slightly boggy field as the Wasbister ‘disc barrow’, slightly above left of centre, with many stones about a central line. In the mid-19th century they weren’t sure what these were only to say they looked like larger versions of hut circles. Lo and behold, when the whole area was geophysiced as part of the interpretation “may also imply that there is also a Neolithic settlement hidden among the remains at Wasbister”.
Its being down on CANMORE as Bookan Barrow means I did not make the most of my opportunity. The site looked wonderful when I was on it but I couldn’t fit any of the views I wanted with my wide-angle lens and so took no photos . You need better than 28mm it seems, or maybe being a six-footer or taller ? I can see why some archaeologists call this a superb example of a disc barrow, oh its divine. They all refer to it as the Wasbister disc barrow, so do websites and news reports, but CANMORE only shows Hall of Tankerness disc barrow in Orkney. In the RCAHMS listing the archaeologist says Wasbister lacks the diagnostic berm. It is in a field with several waterlogged bits. On the shoreline above the barrow two monoliths were found and related to the Ring of Brodgar and such. If I had known where I was I would have had a peek.
P.S found a photo I did take one poor un
Behind the Ring of Brodgar in the RH corner of the field there is a cist-like structure at the top of this mound, though all I could locate on my visit was the turf-covered edge of a long horizontal slab at the side facing the loch. During an excavation nine pieces of silver ‘ring-money’ were found.
Supposedly an early archaeologists’ name for it rather than a local one, this is the knowe opposite the modern entrance to the Ring of Brodgar and slap bang alongside the car park. At one time two short cists were extracted from the mound, but unfortunately having been excavated many times all that is left is the many inroads that now make its appearance so interesting. Contrast that with the basically featureless Fresh Knowe (HY296134) back down the road a little – though there is mention of traces of horns at the south and east corners- and this was at some time the the subject of an abortive excavation (however mention of a cist is believed in error for Salt Knowe behind the ring).
Going down the road to Yesnaby almost instantly you realise that this is one of the routes in Orkney that has missed out on a closer look by the archaeological community, using CANMAP there seems little here but on the ground it appears jam-packed. Abundant rocky outcrops do confuse matters I suppose. If I were looking for the broch again I would try for the more direct approach from Borwick Farm. Going along the coast as I did is only for the very able bodied and definitely not when it has been chucking it down. First obstacle a barbwire fence, which fortunately at one section has a couple of lines missing. Here tou can see two lines of ‘standing stone fences’ intersect [see Breck spine for a fence example]. One of the fences goes across till it hugs all along the very cliff edge. Oh these standing stones are real beauties standing in sturdy big slab-lined rectangular sockets magnificently constructed. Eventually you see the broch ahead on a small headland. For most people the best thing to do would be to use a good telephoto shot from this spot (which I missed out on) and then turn back. The photo would look as if taken from a rock-steady boat to my mind. But now you descend a steep and slippery hillside and cross the stream just above the ruin in the narrow valley. Now an uphill struggle and a barbwire fence. The stile over this is of inferior modern construction – two strips of wood parallel to the fence at no distance and resting on narrow pillars. There is no gap in the fence here and my shortish legs only just scraped over. At the top of the hill entrance to the site is over a less rickety stile thank goodness. Before this standing stone fence at left there is a rectangular depression with several stones that is definitely not wall. To the front right of the broch tower there is a large area covered with stones of various sizes and conditions. Once inside the fence you can see that there is one large thin slab that appears to show a structure. The entrance to the broch tower is round to the left. In front of this are two now uncapped guard cells in plain view, the left being especially well preserved. The doorway is only preserved up to the lintel but apart from a bit of a gap there the broch continues up for several courses more. Some large stones lie on the entrance floor and make it so that you have to bend over to scramble through. Inside there are still some suggestions of structure. All the back is gone of course, and there the broch wall remains are only a couple of feet across and back onto sheer cliff. In order to obtain an overview I had to stand on this hunched back with my 28mm attached, when I just managed the shot. On going back I could see two structural holes either side of the entrance – for a bar ??
You can’t possibly miss the headland that it’s on but there is a map at the car park to be on the safe side. Very difficult to reach (though a peach compared to the Broch of Borwick). Even to get there you have to go over fractured stone pavement along the coast, pass over a small stream and around a tricky boggy path. Only one of the defensive walls is that obvious but it is charming even if not a full line of stones know. There are some structures o the top that were (?fancifully) called sailors’ graves. I saw one of these by the cliff edge ahead of the stone cairn and on the RH side, roughly 3m across. Just three slabs sticking up and a few other stones beside, but a very obvious structure in regards to the situation
Located behind the ruins at the back of Via, which lies the other side of the road from the Loch of Clumley that gives the alternative name. Very impressive pileup, you can understand why the archaeologists admit to being baffled by the remains. The enclosure reference is to the approx. 88x75m depression about it. Though not totally sure the six stones are in situ archaeologists hazard it may be all we have left of a Maes Howe tomb. The stones aren’t all that big, the impression of being massive comes from how thick they are. In Orkney most chambered tombs are of much slighter slabs or of drystane walling. But the impression I had in the flesh was more a sense of its being a dolmen or cromlech. The marshy ground a little distance to the right appears to be above where the well was previously. I am posting seperately a cist-like structure that I saw at the top of this. The decorated stone eluded me.
Walking to the Mine Howe area I suddenly had this idea of the place as a bath-house of the soul, with analogy to frigidarium and tepidarium and plunge pool in mind. Looking from the last dyke wall Round Howe (a landscaped natural knoll) runs almost imperceptibly up into Long Howe. Mine Howe is hidden from view and from the top of the latter would have been yer actual revelation. It would be nice to have authoritative relative dating for the three sites – perhaps we think of affairs revolving on Mine Howe when it could have been an afterthought rather (explaining the possibility of objects from Round Howe being taken wholesale to Mine Howe at some stage).
Last night, afterwards, I tried again to find out why the present county archaeologist referred to the site as a “pseudo-broch”. Found a relevant clipping from “The Orcadian” of September 12th 2002. Nick Card talks of its being “meant to be a broch site” but that in the excavation “what we found...quite bizarre...a mound..surrounded by quite a large ditch...and outside of the ditch..an encircling bank”. Sounds more like a barrow or henge (similarity with Ring of Bookan??). Regarding the paucity of finds he speculated that the many finds from Mine Howe were deposited there after being removed from here. As later Bronze Age pottery turned up at Round Howe could it be regarded as being more in the nature of the capturing of a shrine than a plain transference of sanctity to the later site ?
CANMORE gives this prehistoric settlement as 450m WSW of the Italian Chapel (nothing else known). More usefully it is by the shore the other side of the main road and can be sighted along the side road to the chapel. There must be an easier way in than over the blocks at the end of Churchill Barrier Number One, which was the way I chose for reasons of time – having clambered atop the blocks I saw some stones had been placed on the coastal side of one for such a purpose.
I must admit my hopes were low, maybe a few slight bumps if I was lucky. Proceeding along the coastline there was a flattened area ‘paved’ by flat stones and a few sticking up slightly. At the time because I came upon them so quickly I put them down to being either purely geological or of recent agricultural origin but after what came after I am more open to a dfferent interpretatation. The very next thing was two platforms each 4-5m across, with stones at the sides and back giving them a wedge shape several inches high at the rear. Very nice. Seeing more stones going across the edge of the low cliff I went down onto the beach for a quick shufty. Oh, glory be, what a sight, the cliff hereabouts was a housewall composed of a multitude of rounded stones about the size of a housebrick at most, course after course. All told the exposed section could be made out for 14m, tapering off into indistinction either side. It may be that it does continue erratically over an even longer portion of the cliff, though the cliff-face shortly goes down to sea-level at the left. The main central portion that first took my fancy is the 4m to the right of the only orthostat in the section. Neolithic or at the least Bronze Age
Coming back up I went towards a small modern structure roadside to see if there was another way out there. There wasn’t but I did pass a couple of depressions with a few smaa stones in that might be something. And then a couple of linear humps, short but suggestive – though what of I’m no sure.
Not far from the edge of town, down below Berstane Farm follow the track that goes to the right, the direction of Inganess Bay. At the far corner of the grounds of Berstane House is a dovecot, a square masonry tower with a stepped back at the top. From here look diagonally acoss to the familiar shape of an eroded broch on the small headland at the bottom of a field. There are supposed to be other settlement remains in the vicinity but I’m not aware of having seen any.
Coming down to it I saw a big scoop in the centre of my field of view which I thought to be the broch interior with small stones around the edge revealed. But from the top of the mound I saw this to be a scoop excavated from the ege rather, for here I was definitely in the region of the interior. This broch is of a similar size and situation to Ingshowe but with fewer large stones exposed to view.
CANMORE said a section was exposed 10’ up the cliff face and I had seen on the left an easy way down to the beach. The masses of seaweed made further exploration dangerous and I would advise not going alone. Carefully I made my way around to the sandy area at the foot of the cliff supporting the broch. Here the upper part looks very similar to Ingshowe (right down to the stones pointing out at right-angles over the cliff) except that the base isn’t well delineated – probably owing to its being built upon well inclined strata.
From Berstane Farm a track does run straight down to the shore, but for the infrequent visitor this route is most problematical for the aforementioned reason.
Broch found today. Only meant to go to Gaitnip, then noted down the other Five Hillocks for an upclose sometime, finally thought what the heck and went for Holm. This tine the broch mound stuck out like a sore thumb to me – last time I started round the loch from further end and that is where I went wrong I feel. At the bottom of the hill before you finally enter St. Mary’s (from the ‘Kirwall end’) it straddles the space between the road junction and the Electricity thingy. Big but insignificant looking and covered by grassy tussocks. Closing in I was disappointed to see spaces several metres across where mucho excavation had taken place, looking as if the place had been quartered. Straight lines, curvy lines, and a ruddy great hole over in the centre. Looks very deceiving. Coming in my foot rocked on a hidden slab. Turned out most of the floor and walls are fairly intact beneath a grassy and/or mossy covering. Sitting on an outer wall I could see large exposed stones either side of what appeared to be an entrance A reasonable number of stones could be seen on the inner wall of the centre. Came back from there and was astounded I could follow the outer section of the inner wall still standing to a reasonable height all the way around. In some places sections of wall were exposed for several metres several courses high. Well worth a look for the sure-footed.
On second visit ascertained all entrances original, dtected more walls.
Several bits of archaeology have been found in the area surrounding Breck Farm. Few remain – for instance there used to be a structure with at least one beehive cell in the stackyard (HY512060). In the field next to this was a clay-lined pit and an urn with a fine stone lid. ‘Lesser’ thick-bodied urns were found in other fields.
It may be that the row I call Beck Spine originally terminated at the standing stone, but as the latter is hidden from the former by being cut into the hill I’m unable to check for alignment.
As mentioned in my “Anything but Mine Howe” weblog my attention was first caught by the standing stone in the field roadside opposite the start of the Muckle Crofty track before spotting that it lay in a dead straight line with another further on . In fact my photo is focussed on the latter as there was a probably more significant scatter of stones about that in my binocular field . Indeed when I went on my second visit , in order to photograph sites that had taken my fancy in the region of the Mine Howe complex ( as mentioned in the weblog ) , I think I may have made out one or two more standing stones on the alignment . Another incomplete ‘standing stone fence’ ? Alas I had to be frugal with my remaining film .
Well worth a visit if you are into decayed structures (6 out of 10). I entered the field by climbing over a wooden gate that is difficult owing to the close construction. First sight is a long mound with a standing stone on the left and a circular depression in the centre. Closer to the standing stone is the end of a close packed straight wall that still is exposed for several yards. From afar you can make out a few small stones about the depression, so it comes as a pleasant surprise as one climbs ever so slightly to look down and see this is filled by large slabs even if no clearly discernable structure. The back of the mound survives a bit higher, so it is a disappointment when one goes behind that this appears so nondescript. Here are the two modern structures that are presumably where the second mound used to be.
Near the airport but one for the yompers this. Coming from this direction I tried the field to the left of the cottage but found it to be waterlogged ground crisscrossed by ground water. So I made it through the waste ground to the right. Still one for the welly brigade perhaps as there was boggy bits and the very rough pasture on the way consists of large tussocks jostling for position. Not much further down the road is a Nissen hut and I would advise visitors to go by the track alongside this and the strike across for the howe.
Craw Howe is the mound just behind the pool extending to the fence crossing the right-hand end. Maybe the two other mounds are part of the hill one sees too. Probably not really worth all that effort as very little sense can be made of it. There are obvious signs of prior excavation/s and some of the stones on top are of recent origin.
I had forgotten about this broch till I just this moment came across the prints. To paraphrase it’s one of the ruins that Petrie buggered about a bit. It stands quite well behind Hoxa but this wall is his reconstruction. Would have been nice to go inside the wall but the interior was completely taken over by very tall nettles, so went further along the road got into a field and proceeded up the long ramp of a mound that approaches the broch from behind. From the ‘hilltop’ there you look directly into the structure. Lovely it is.
Stone avenues between here and the Little Howe settlement at the coast are only the product of field clearances. RCAHMS NMRS number ND49SW 1 also reports that indications of structures about it are rather later. If so why does the mound lead up to the broch instead of more generally about it? I remember that Mine Howe is said to have been reached via one of the other mounds – perhaps it wasn’t simply a case of this being the only dry route at the time.
MARCH 15th: Just back from Tankerness again (to take 2 photos of the Grieves Cottage stone’s placement) and the presence of two swans in the loch I took as a sign to go there again. Slabs are still visible, though no obvious structures. Stepping back I was surprised to see an apparent small oval structure abutting one of the large flags. Not a simple slab outline but I couldn’t help wondering if this was what Raymond Lamb had seen – maybe after the drought of 1980 the loch never recovered its former level and indeed receded further?
Perhaps in Mesolithic times this wasn’t even a lochan. When I stepped back up the hill the ‘structure’ seemed to merge into other stones about so it went unphotographed. One very peculiar feature to report was that one ‘corner’ was a red stone ball about six inches across. Actually it is completely and minutely speckled with minerals.
For once CANMORE provides no detail apart from this being a burnt mound below which at low water levels can be seen the tops of upright slabs forming an oval structure. This is on the same side of the loch as the Howie Manse and I feel excavation would reveal the area about it to be perhaps as complicated. Opposite the gate that gives entrance to the Grieves Cottage field is a gate to the field on the other side of the road, and you can see the (on this side slight) mound over by. When you approach this it seems more like two mounds – either that or at one time it was rather large. There are some bigish stones in this, especially where it falls away to the shore, but I could discern no structures.
Down on the beach much of the geology seems to be flagstone pavement, including some immense slabs. Must have been low water because I could easily find various upright slabs buried about here. Raymond Lamb in “The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Scotland , 27...” says that the drought of 1980 not only exposed this Bronze Age structure but also an erect row of slabs fifteen metres ESE of the house beside a wall, and that the waters must have risen by at least a metre since these were built (it is only 2m deep now in most of the deeper sections). Certainly some of this doesn’t require even waterproof shoes to get close to. Make a nice paddle. I’m not sure I didn’t see one or two extra upright scattered about as I couldn’t make out the recorded structure’s outline myself. Could some of the flagstones also have been part of structures, or at the very least abutted them? Tried to decide but was unable to do so, simply a feeling. Raymond also says many crude stone implements lie on the loch bed.
Between here and The Howie of The Manse is a roofless structure ( HY520092 ) that looks mediaeval , with empty arched windows that feel vaguely churchy . Actually this is a “Gothic boathouse”. Look inside and the larger seaward section is filled with what looks like the top of a giant’s hogback, with a hollow underneath . Very Romantic.
On the very tip of the little headland down from Rennibister souterrain this site is a lot better than it looks from the road. You have to go over a barred metal gate, inside which is the usual muddy rectangle where livestock have gathered. The grass-coverd mount presents a slightly horned apparance. From the rocks by the burn to the furthest on the left rock the mound totals 52m and from this line to the seaward side maxes out at 16m as the mound rises. At its highest points I made it to be 2-2.5m structure remaining. Next obstacle is two barb-wire fences under a metre apart running across the top – my little legs just made it .
Most of the lower mound is before this, and as I found out the better stones are scattered across here. Coming up to the top there is an area of scattered stones, about two metres wide and encompassing 13m across, which appears to go around what remains of the central tower (the turfed horny section). You can make out inner and outer walls. As I climbed over to the coastline several fulmars flew out from the cliff-face. I found a spot on the left where I could get down to the shore – I must warn you that I found the seaweed around the cliff deep and slippy-slidey. From here you can follow from the left about 36m of remaining structure. Most of this wall is exposed, but alas the majority of the stonework is (now at least) small friable stuff. But the base is exceptionally well delineated a thin black and brown section ramrod staight!
Before I left I turned to look at some big birds in the sea. Imagine my surprise when the binoculars revealed one to be a seal just offshore. And the others turned out to be seal heads too. I made out five. The one nearest me revealed its flippers additionally as it bathed. At this point I left them to the quiet.
I had always been put off by the idea of crawling through the 2’ square entrance passage and then this last month I find there is a ladder down from the top like at Wideford Hill Cairn!
If only the gate in the fence around it wasn’t so stuck , the bolt took a lot of convincing to come back across. Down inside I turned around and felt almost hemmed in . As you descend you notice the uppermost corbelling and the flat ‘roof’ are painted grey to show they’re not original. Around the sides are several rectangular niches. Opposite the ladder off the bottom is the entrance passage, easier than the dimensions make you think but with damp gravel on the floor. Looking in there was light beyond that made me believe the other end still open (thirty foot long I was once told) but out in the open it probably needs more than the cursory search that I made.
The first time I went, sans camera, it was well illuminated inside. When I went back again even though the sunshine did not appear much less the interior was mostly in the shadows. This is another of those places best suited to a compact camera (digital for extensive depth of focus) and flash.
This site lies close to an exceptionally zigzaggy burn (another mound of similar nature now gone). Down the road from Mine Howe looking to the right I could see a long green mound and at one end a standing stone. Coming round the junction nearer to Hawell I now saw another stone at right-angles to the first and apparently abutting it. On the other side of the road by the corner of Hawell at the roadside were two stones echoing the sight, the one parallel to the road having piercings top and bottom on one side.
RCAHMS NMRS record HY50NW 10 describes this a several stone compartments with a slab-formed rectangular tank just off, so presumably I misread the view. Prior to excavation the mound survived as an E-W ridge.
If you land at Burwick pier this promontory fort is within easy reach around the coast to the North. Most of what little remains is dykes. The fort itself is attached by a short narrow strip of land to the main coastline. In my brief visit I could make out nothing there, though to make up for this looking landwards there is a mighty fine cave at the bottom of the cliffs through which the sea rushes (alas the only pictures I have are of this – I did see a nice wall on the cliffside at the main coastline but for once didn’t take a picture of something I thought at the time mediaeval!).
This broch was formerly within sight of the Howe which lay on the hill the other side of the water (just past the RH edge of the photo). The mound to the south, Corn Hillock, is now considered as of similar nature, giving a pair of brochs as seen elsewhere in Orkney.
FEBRUARY 24TH
Second time I reached the Ring of Bookan. Knowing now where it was as I went up the hill past where Bookan tomb lay to the top there was its outline to my left, a long low mound with a cleft in the middle in which a rectangular stone is prominent. The first time I saw it was as an unimpressive but still high mound, two fields away from the road and with a big hollow interior in which I saw a large standing stone and some less distinct stuff besides. This time it was clear that it is in the first field and there is no central empty space.
Walking towards it I was pleasantly surprised by the size and excellent condition of the surrounding ditch, which put me in mind of Maes Howe (though later this ditch called to mind Stackrue Broch down the other side of the hill : perhaps this like The Howe not only goes forward to Viking times but back to to the Neolithic – the subterranean passage could have been put through a tomb entrance as with the souterrain there). The stones I had seen were on a platform-like area across the mound. There seems to be an area of grass on the central mound indicative of an henge-type entrance long gone.
Down on the hillside portion there are exposed the friable stones of whatever structure underlies the mound’s exterior – this is so fragmented that I can’t help wondering if the builders used some pre-existing natural for a starting point at least. From here you can see the decent-sized mound of Skae Frue (alias Wasbuster barrow HY282144) below.
It is not obvious to me whether the ‘platform’ is archaeology or excavation. There is quite a lot going on there, possibly more than one structure even going by what is immediately obvious/visible, and you could use up a whole film trying to make sense of it. The archaeologists are unsure whether this is a henge or a tomb but I feel it could have been both (if some tombs were based-on, or incorporated, standing stones then this brings them closer to multi-period henge development – there is a divergence from a common origin let’s say).
This broch sits on a small headland jutting out into the lower end of the Loch of Tankerness.
There are two ways to reach the site; Neither is straightforward and both requiring boots. One is to follow the mill stream and step on and over the wall where the stream comes to the loch shore, then follow the shoreline to your right. This way is very marshy and somewhat treacherous. Alternatively go up the hill from the Tankerness Mill and just round the road from Northwood House (the sound of doves comes from Glebe). Go to the field that is directly behind this, then downfield to the shore. It tends to be rather suckily muddy in many places. I would suggest going down the left-hand side, as the wall does a few strange things. To get to the headland requires going through a barbed wire fence , which fortunately has plenty of give in it or I’d never have managed it.
It is one of the least prepossessing brochs I have seen, though at the seaward end it stands rather higher than the likes of Oxtro. At first sight I thought that there was nothing. Going towards it you can certainly feel plenty of apparently isolated stones hidden beneath the grass but no sense of stucture that I could tell. Coming to the highpoint and taking the line around you certainly get a strong feel for where the inner and outer walls were, going by the turf.
At the top and found a roughly rectangular depression. Looking on the inner side I made out several slabs in a non-radial line. So I did some rooting about and tearing off of the overhanging grass. Definitely a straight wall, remaining about six foot long and a foot or so high. The other side is less well defined, a few loose stones as far as I could tell and not so obviously slabs. If you go poking about then gloves are a necessity – the place is covered in almost invisibly short nettles, I can fully feel the nasty little buggers several hours later! Maybe this is how such sites can sound so uninteresting in official reports , that only amateurs are daft enough to brush brush aside for a proper view.
Coming from the Kirkwall-Stromness road the first hillock you come to on the Germiston Road is, it must be admitted, unremarkable (looking across the road you can see Lower Hobbister farm in the middle distance). But to one side of the far slope is the most magnificent stone-lined ‘stream’. This is so well-made that I feel the hillock has to be an archaeological site too , as if the ‘stream’ has had a section seconded as some kind of rampart. Alternatively the large stones lining the stream could instead have actually come from a structure on the hill ( which shows evidence of ?unrecorded excavation ).
Nothing remains now of the Broch itself as this was bulldozed in 1981. It was along the cliffpath to the left of the Scapa Distillery. The mounds that can still be seen represent the outbuildings. These may have stretched as far as the Orphir road on a bend in which you can sit on part of the mound still. This reminds me of the one opposite the Standing Stones Hotel on the main Kirkwall-Stromness road. It could also have been associated with the Broch of Warbuster whose remains used to be at Tofts Farm.
Going out of Kirkwall you obtain a key (weekdays only) from Ortak Jewellery that sits at the corner of Hatston Industrial Estate. In the estate take the second road on your left and then at the second junction on your right, the bottom end of Scott’s Road, lies the earthhouse.
There have been at least two sites of this type in the kilometre area, the present one at HY44131161 (RCAHMS NMRS record HY44SW 19) and another fully excavated ahead of a new road and car park at HY44181159 (RCAHMS NMRS record HY44SW 14).
Coming to the broch by the farmroad is easiest as there is a kind of platform there. I think the short wall-sections are gardenification like that which ‘lost’ us Peerie Howe further along the track. From this side you see a large excavation on the side of the broch and a kind of grassy track up the side.
On top the interior is all hollowed out. Looking over to the left is a distinct rectangular hollow. If not simply a later excavation pit this looks a likely intramural feature, either a chamber or the beginning of a stair. At the seaward side are further excavation traces. Apart from the flat ‘platform’ trackside the rest of the mound drops away in front of you. At the other side is another track going down, narrower and sharper and steeper.
Along the Deerness Road, at a place where it narrows and there is sea on either side, you will find Dingieshowe. To reach Dingieshowe Bay itself means passing through huge grass-covered sand dunes. The one standing on your right is actually Dingieshowe Broch, with a cental depression but not much else to tell it apart. The beach has two distinct sections, the sands in front of you and on the left a gorgeous pebbly beach for the geologists amongst us (strictly speaking the Bay of Dingieshowe and the Bay of Taracliff).
Head out to the airport and past it you will come to the Mine Howe site on the left. Little to be seen on the surface apart from where they have exposed a section of ditch, above which lies the entrance to the famous bit. Not recommended for those prone to bad backs if my experience is anything to go by. To get in you have to go down a steel ladder. It isn’t as deep as the impression you will have gained from the literature – or maybe my spatial perceptions are awry. A good place for digital camera and flash. Mighty fine. If you don’t fancy the climb down there is a truncated version close by on another hillock, less sense of adventure but only a few steps down to the floor. (Not much further along the Deerness Road, at a place where it narrows and there is sea on either side, you will find Dingieshowe Broch. And about the same in the opposite direction at Campston is Veltikelday Broch.
At the west end of Stem Howe, one section of the dogleg aligns with the findspot of several thick-bodied clay urns at Breck Farm (HY50NW13), clipping the corner of what is presently believed to be the site of the former chapel, and the other section directs itself to a point between Long Howe and Mine Howe. From Round Howe you look to Long Howe, continue through Mine Howe and you would come to Breck Farm. So I would posit the farm as the settlement to which the other sites ‘belong’ .
A long minor road leads you to the Broch of Gurness on the headland . On this stretch of coast , facing Rousay of the fabulous tombs , are the remains of many brochs . But this is the only one viewable up close as a scenic site for visitors . Further down the road to Finstown lies the Tingwall road , and if you go down to the pier to catch a boat to Rousay just before you reach farm in front of the pier , on the left of the road lies Thing-Voll Broch . This is a lovely multi-period site , much excavated ; not just the broch alone but many houses and extensive turfed ditches
All the years that I have been in Orkney of all the major sites to look at I had never been to the Knowe of Onston, despite its lying alongside the main road just short of the Brig o’Waithe.
Somehow it looked insignificant and also I was put off by the thought of crawling through some damp passage. Then I saw a photo of the inside on a website and was surprised by the light and space. So one weekend two weeks later I finally paid homage to the Unstan Tomb, finding it to be just as the photo showed. Such a contrast to the Cuween Hill Cairn: there really was a short crawl, here more a shambling crouch, there the main compartment only fairly visible with a lantern, here apart (alas) for the side-chamber it was as if you were out in the open.
The place is refreshing to look at and in my limited opinion is as good as our stalled cairns get, short of a trip to Rousay. A couple visiting at the time were impressed by the use of red sandstone slabs.
Sorted out my confusion between this chambered tomb and/or henge and the Bookan chambered tomb further down. So much easier to find on CANMAP at higher mag – all visitors looking for particular sites (and ejits like me) should really check with this resource first, the archaeology is so thick on the ground in Orkney. My second attempt and I still misidentified. Going up the hill to Buckan Farm at the top I looked to my left and saw a big mound in the field with a couple of stones sticking up in the central hole. Thought to myself, oh I only have half a film left I’d better leave that for Stackrue, must come back and approach this tumulus another time. Then when RCAHMS finally came back online after the weekend I found out my ‘tumulus’ was really the sought-for Ring of Bookan!! Still, Stackrue Broch was well worth it.
On the ground the cairn is easy to approach a wide track going straight up from a barred metal gate by the roadside.
The ditch around the site, is shallow but fairly easy to see. Inside almost looks like a spoil heap and on the seaward side outside the ditch there is a standing stone that might once have been part of a fence. Before I left I saw the top of a slab that might have been part of a stall or a radial compartment and right next to this was a piece of black plastic(?) webbing held firm by the ground so I think there is a possibility further excavation may one day take place. According to CANMORE the 2002 excavation showed this Late Neolithic chambered tomb to be rather different from other sites of this type in size and aspects of its architecture. If you wish to look at the mounds further up wellingtons are advisable.
A very well preserved broch on Shapinsay where they took the decision to only excavate the interior , which means you can walk along the top and take pictures of the inside as well as from the inside .
Carry on up the Brodgar road past Buckan farm and you could easily miss the small sign on the right pointing out the Lyking road . No great distance from Lyking ( why does the road take such a strange turn there when it could easily have kept straight on it seems ) is the Stackrue site on the right . Oh I thought , another scrappy broch remnant . And so it appeared as I approached , only when I came up to it was the ruined splendour revealed as the other end a broch corner shone with large intact blocks still standing several courses high . Around it runs a large deep ditch possibly similar to that at the Broch of Gurness . At the resplendent end are a few standing stones and at one point against the bank several largish slabs . The rest looks like your average (?post- ) broch remains .
That a round steatite plate with a partial runic inscription was discovered here shows that like the Broch of Gurness and The Howe occupation continued till Viking times , explaining why the broch wall remains stand out from the rest .
This pair of standing stones (the 3rd pair known to have existed in this region, the only still complete pair there) should perhaps have an alternative name of Bridgend rather than Brodgar Farm as this appears to be the name of the associated cottage . It does seem passing strange though that Brodgar Cottage has a similar arrangement , with stones embedded in a small hillock parallel to the road and on the ‘downhill’ side of a cottage at right angles to the road. But at the farm the stones are ‘only’ a pair of strangely isolated gateposts . The very slight mound (before you reach the standing stones) in the area appears by geophysics to be a probable broch , there is nothing to be seen there apart from the hill itself and a big scoop showing excavation .