This grassy mound (corn here means ‘cows’), RCAHMS record no. HY21SE 99, does not appear to have had specific mention prior to the 1998 coastal survey (assuming the cairn below Cumminess referred to in 1907 is Cummi Howe broch). It is some 33m by 20m and 1.6m in height. They found stone concentrations at various places and some protruding earthfast stones, also evidence of quarrying about the edge. EASE hazards that it is the remains of some kind of settlement, perhaps a broch because of an apparent 15m central hollow.
wideford
RCAHMS record no. HY20NE 1 is a 100m by 50m (approx) bit of ‘waste’ land near the cliff edge containing lots of small hillocks of stone with no apparent arrangement. The earliest reports are of the biggest mound, some 8m across and 1m high, being the most northerly. However the 1882 O.S. map shows a mound at the end furthest from the sea (that is the east end), much diminished by 1903, which a 1998 coastal survey associates with the 1880 ONB ‘castle’ of turf-covered earth and stones as a platform (with ? linked features). The EASE survey identifies the 54m by 30m N/S platform, some 3m high, with the ‘Danish fort’ of tradition i.e. late Viking or early mediaeval. Said platform looked to rise slightly towards the edges, as if banked (visible stones seen as perhaps revetment wall). This survey also mentions a small mound to the platforms SE as probably artificial and a curving earthen banked enclosure some 50m by 10m lying between the platform and the cliffs – bone pins are reported to have been found where The Cairns near the cliff edge.
The possible henge site I mentioned is named after the nearby cottage, where the legend for Staney Hill is shown i.e. the other side of the road from the standing stone field. I am informed that the ditch is clear to see, being water-filled, but my informant found on the first O.S. that the track previous to the present Grimeston road runs through where the possible entrance is shown.
Graves were found at a place called Fairy Knowe which has been identified with the plain mound Quoyer visible from here in the next field east, for want of a better candidate. Given the pits dug into the Vola platform this would seem a much better prospect.
The first speaker at tonight’s O.A.S. meeting described his work at a third Staney Hill site he simply called Henge [none of the archaeos present disputed the term, so it is Orkney’s 4th if Bûkan is one], 80m diameter and cut across one end by the road. Described as little known either it has a different name for the NMRS or another antiquarian one as it rings no bells. Unfortunately I could not identify the place from either photo shown. One was of a putative entrance ,though the devil’s advocate says it resembles the passage into a field across a ditch if there had been a field boundary there once. I might even have images myself if I knew where it was !
In the next farm along from Hillhead of Crantit a perforated macehead was found at Musterquoy {huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=all&SearchTerm=B.1914.643&mdaCode=GLAHM&reqMethod=Link&browseMode=on} so perhaps I have to take back what I said about Hillhead of Crantit not being the source of a stone ball.
In the 1860’s there were several cists of stone ‘destroyed’ in a field belonging to Saverock. These have been associated with the modern Saverock, perhaps the lost mound HY41SW 7, but could these have been from the Saverock Burnt Mound like with Howe Harcus (Mussaquoy) ? In 1882 farmer Mr Fergus found a white quartz axe, 5 5/8 ins long by 2 1/4 ins broad and 1 5/8 ins thick, sticking half out the ground in the same field. A few feet away was a perforated granite hammerhead. Local antiquarians later found nearby a polished granite axe butt, several rough stone hammers and a stone mortar, along with flint chips and ornamented potsherds – the Hunterian Museum has from here an arrowhead and seven scrapers, a couple of rubbing stones [one possibly a polisher], an ornamental vessel and two potsherds
Hunterian Museum item B.1914.643 is a macehead from Mussaquoy – this site presumably
Close by Hillhead of Crantit is Highland Park Distillery, where a microlith turned up whilst digging foundations some fifty years before 1986 – what later became the Meadow of Scapa was a freshwater loch in the Mesolithic. Can one dare hope that plans for new housing on the still damp brae (wonderful yellow flag flowers every abundantly summer) reveals faint traces or summat.
In the Proceedings of the Orkney Antiquarian Society the chapel site on the east side of the loch is described as evidently used by man because of the rich grass covering it, which sounds more like the north loch site. He too says that there are no signs of the kirk, apart from a few earthfast slabs. Is it possible that Dryden’s plan does not have N at the top in the modern manner. This would certainly explain why he shows a 45’ neck connecting it to the shore but no causeway.
Except Dryden’s sketch is certainly not Wasdale 2
Having crossed over to this at a very low water level “Countrywoman” [“The Orcadian” Aug 15th 1985] recalls that traditionally a graveyard to go with the ‘chapel’ lay on an island at the opposite side of the loch, and recollects wading across once to find an artificial/modified island with edgeset stones at the lochward side – an area at the northern end of the loch (at HY34221517) has gone through the same vicissitudes as this site, being shown as an island on the 1882 O.S. but now a circular promontory presently [and much larger than Dryden’s islet].
In 1976 the Orkney Field Club established by observation that the 1772 drawing on p.223 of the Royal Society’s “Notes & Records...” Vol.28 No.2 is a true view from the SE side of the Stones of Stenness to the Watchstone and beyond
Insular stone Circles :-
In a talk on Wednesday by Colin Richards his subject was the Stone Circles in Orkney and Lewis, which contrary to expectation turned out to be of different natures and for different purposes. Those in Orkney are constructed of material from seperate areas (Stones of Stenness five different sandstones, Ring of Brodgar twelve different geologies in distinct segments of the circle that significantly aren’t always curved arcs) whilst those on Lewis are built of rock from their immediate vicinity (also the evidence is that both Orcadian circles were intentionally incomplete, from which he infers the rituals of the construction were an end in themselves). His ?new idea is that those on Orkney had place as the key factor (place of origin, spatial community) whilst those on Lewis had folk as the key factor (family, dispersed community [moiety ?] }.
From which is extrapolated that our obsession with geometry and algnments isn’t theirs, that what looks incomplete to us is meant as is, and that whatever comes after is most likely not the original intent, that being the construction process itself.
In a talk tonight Colin Richards said (using insight from Andrew Appleby)that the Staney Hill area was probably another source of the stones for the Ring of Brodgar and that he will be investigating this summer
s.s themodernantiquarian.com/post/48685/images/staney_hill.html
?quarry below cairn themodernantiquarian.com/post/67427/images/staney_hill.html
The modern theory that most of the stones were floated across has had doubt cast upon it by the discovery that at that time the Loch of Stenness (at least to the north) rather than being an open body of water was marsh with a few lochans (much smaller bodies of water).
Source : Radio Orkney for April 21st[bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/programmes/orkney/ online for the day shortly]
Nick Card very excited to find a standing stone marked on Thomas’ map north of Maes Howe [though this could always have been part of a burial mound]
NMRS record no. NH64NE 11 is of unproven antiquity yada yada. This roughly oval piece of bluish sandstone measures 1x0.8m. It can now be found in front of the town hall, the old Exchange in the High Street in Inverness, built into the base of ‘Forbes Fountain’ (it had formerly performed the duty of base for the Old Town Cross). Traditionally this was brought from the west after having been an inaugural stone for the Lords of The Isles. Some think it had originally been a standing stone rather than a rocking stone.
Castle Bloody first appears as the site of a Pict’s House or Fort. This mound (NMRS record no. HY51NW 4 at HY53591643) on a moorland summit in the NE of Shapinsay had been partly explored by a local prior to 1923, when a newspaper describes it as a gallery grave i.e. a souterrain like Grain and Rennibister on Mainland. Later it is called a chambered cairn. Finally, for the moment at least, it appears as a variant souterrain. This appears to mean a monument type where a mound covers one or more passages, each ending in one or more chambers built on the o.g.s. Unfortunately in or after 1972 a capstone blocked the single certain chamber here.
This 13m diameter grass-covered stony cairn has a modern marker on top, despite which from being nearly 1.7m high in 1928 the height has apparently eroded to 1.2m. The removal of several massive capstones, east of centre at the south side, revealed a N/S corbelled irregular chamber roughly 1.5x 0.9 m in plan. This is entered from the south-east by a 4m long curving lintelled passage, roughly 60cm wide and a minimum four drystane courses high, through a 90cm square chamber entrance. Below the level of this passage another left from the cell’s north end. Though blocked it could be seen to turn north-east after about a metre, where what looks to be a hollow packed loosely with debris could be a second cell – it is believed there could be yet more cells in the mound leading off similarly. The certain chamber is itself now choked with debris and has become blocked by a displaced roofing slab.
If one pictures a corbelled chamber of rectangular plan with side cells leading off surely the image conjured up is that of Maes Howe ?? Right time of year for miniatures.
There are two sites at the Knowe of Midgarth, a long hillock adjacent to a circular mound [vaguely reminiscent of the ‘Viking’ mound and broch at the Howe of Hoxa]. Raymond Lamb says these two comprise a single settlement. Davidson and Henshall believe the former to be a “variant souterrain” like Castle Bloody (presumably the ‘gallery grave’ that used to be in Stromness parish, this term once e.g. used to describe Rennibister and Grain earthhouses) whilst P.O.A.S. VI in speaking of a grassy mound containing “sailor’s graves” is surely referring to the latter [ so ? like the “West Broch of Burgar”]. But all we know about the cairn (NMRS record no. HY32SE 1 at HY39872360) is that it is 100 yards SE of the hillock and has suffered a lot of plough damage but survives roughly four feet high and fifty across.
We are better served by the records for the probable [multi-period?] settlement, HY32SE 6 at HY39812361. A five metre long passageway at the west end leads to two sub-rectangular corbelled cells, the size only given as small.. The first is two steps down from the passage, and though probably entry had been gained by antiquarians through its roof this had been repaired. Slightly beyond the chamber a short south-east passage leads to a larger cell through a narrow access, now blocked. Since before 1967 entry from the SE has blocked up and the two cells are filling up with debris.
On the north side is the entry point for another passage that curves for at least ten metres before it is blocked. The shore nearby has a likely hearth consisting of four edgeset slabs that has produced charcoal. A trial excavation near the eastern top of the hillock has revealed yet another possible passage with maybe more cells, though this walling (way above the level of the north passage) consists of very overgrown stonework jumbled about. On this side of the mound facing the beach fragmentary masonry could represent a related drystane wall and there is kitchen midden along the eastern shoreline
To the north of the knowe the irregular Midland earth tumulus with small stones is thought to cover a prehistoric structure, though only one large-ish stone protrudes. HY32SE 7 at HY39732368 was slighly over half the size of the Midgarth tumulus (25~30m) but farming has removed a good deal
NMRS record no. HY32NW 15 is a chambered cairn one nautical mile from Howana Gruna. But once it was thought to be a broch and even referred to as the West Broch of Burgar and shown on the first O.S. maps as broughs, these supposedly paired brochs compared to those on Burray. According to P.O.A.S. VII, in 1928, some years before a lot of the stone had been acquired for farm buildings. Within the mound there had been (or believed to have been) the usual “sailor’s graves” {might the Burgar hoard have actually come from here ? It would have been a good ploy for a suspicious farmer to mislead treasure seekers by saying it came from the broch). On the aforesaid maps a thick-walled square structure is shown a little beyond the mound on the coastal side of the fieldwall. The Castle legend is displaced offshore on more modern maps Presumably it is only coincidence that the long cairn on the Head of Work also has a castle at the cliff-edge nearby, as what can be seen there nowadays looks essentially natural.
A 1935 report in the 1946 RCAMS Inventory describes a 52’ grassy mound with a flat hollow 37’ wide bounded by a ridge 2-5’ high having a small section of possible inner wall face exposed at the north. Two E/W slabs near the centre projecting 2’8” from present ground surface were compared to the divisional slabs at the Unstan Tomb. Two slabs of 6’ and 4’ a yard to their east, edgeset, were comparable to Unstan’s side entry if they were in situ, possibly including a further stone in the putative passage.
The presently exposed chamber according to Davidson and Henshall consists of compartments 1.8 and 2m long. Their Orkney volume adds another piece at the northern end blocking this chamber where an axial passage might have been once , the previously mentioned (angled) wall face which they think most likely to be exposed cairn material only. The two presumed displaced slabs (aligned N/S) they assume to have simply been part of the chamber [though these are distincty out of proportion with other elements of the chamber, surely]. According to Davidson and Henshall the cairn has a definite edge to give it a size of 17.5m (i.e. over a metre greater than previously reported – oblate?), and stands to 1.9m max. at the SE. The cairn’s composition is reported as substantial flat stones of a very friable nature.
As described by them this NE/SW chamber consists front to back of :-
Slab pair (outer) are 0.65m apart 20cm thick, projecting 0.2 & 0.5m, with the first the only slab not 0.6m wide. Slab pair (inner) 0.6m higher up are 0.55m apart (1935 1’4” from a different place ?) 5 cm thick, projecting 0.8m but apparently once taller – that at the SE presently has its top level with the surviving mound top. The barely projecting back slab is 10cm thick and 0.2m above the outer pair.
NMRS record no. HY32NE 11 is a 4m high broch with asymmetric settlement (“unsurveyable”), there being many edgeset slabs between the main mound and an external bank to the south that strikes up from the coast. It has been stated that this site has not been excavated, but in 1916 (when the surface area of this knowe was given as [on the oder of] fifty yards by ten) locals remembered a man called Johnny Fea going inside the tumulus so deep as to hear otters at work. A seal bone borer came from exposed foundations at the north side. These are traceable for roughly twenty feet and indicate an outer wall of at least twelve feet thickness (there are traces of a one foot wide intra-mural gallery atop the mound). Other finds were two beads and many likely potlids. On the other side of the Burn of Woo is a probable burnt mound, a metre high, called Robie’s Knowe.
NMRS record no. HY32NW 10 is thought to be a site like that which covered Gurness broch and settlement. The grass-covered stony mound is over a hundred feet across and sixteen high, with several edge-set stones indicating structures below the turf. Gru(d)gar is two fields away and over the road. Ryo is the original appelation and is likely to be either Orcadian ‘roo’ meaning heap of stones or a variant of Grugar (a spindle whorl found on the farm has the name Grudiar/Grudair attached).
Sigurd’s article on the Ahrensburgian flints from Stronsay orkneyjar.com/archaeology/stronsayflints.htm great colour photo of these two primitive arrowheads
Prior to Farrer’s 1854 excavation this was an apparently untouched tumulus, about five feet high with very steep sides, but subsequent (unrecorded) digs have removed all recognisable traces of his work. He and Petrie found cists at the south and north sides 2-3 feet down. The former, about 6 feet from the centre, measured 2’6"x2’x2’1” internally, but had side slabs 5’10” long and an irregular capstone 4’ by 2’6”. This cist had been sealed with clay, but the 1½” thick flags were much deteriorated and at odd angles. Within this a large steatite urn sat upon the meeting of four slabs and contained burnt bones and ashes. On the other side of the barrow they found a slightly smaller cist, at 2’9½” by 1’7”, that held a small clay-and-gravel urn. The urn held only a few small pieces of stone, being mostly filled with what is described as soil. It fell apart in Kirkwal. However there were many bones laid on a flag in the NW corner beneath fine soil. Petrie reports the later finding of a broken pestle (??macehead, perhaps THM 1985.34 ??) and a stone vessel with two rows of ringmarks like those seen about the steatite urn.
In his volume on round houses [sic] Mackie has a possible broch in the locality, but nothing further is known by him for his HY41 6 at HY421120.
I have now determined that the chambered mound (HY31SW 20 at HY30391280) is the same as the Kokna-cumming “burnt mound” (RCAMS 1946 Inventory 899, HY31SW 28).
The Deepdale standing stones (having NW/SE axes), RCAHMS NMRS no. HY21SE 25 at HY272117, used to be a pair – A at HY27171171 and B at HY27181166. Standing at A facing the Unstan Cairn eighty-two degrees clockwise and 44.5m away is/was B, the other side of the south-east fence and further up the hill. The latter was the longer stone at 7’6” compared to 6’, though its top was a foot less vertically as at some time in recent centuries a then taller stone had been snapped and the unshiftable remainder left at an angle. It tapered from a 5’3” maximum to a point, whereas A is 4’6” thick (4½” thick) and sub-rectangular. A has a roughly 1x0.2 m edgeset-stone setting showing about 0.3m high, with a roughly metre long stone fragment alongside (there used to be another fragment – one assumes therefore that this s.s. was also slighted). In the 1960’s heavy ploughing disturbed stone B and the bulk was removed for safety. The remaining stump, projecting 8-10”, was excavated later (at this time other fragments remained) but not enough matter found for the C14 methods back then to work. It measured 4’5” by 6” and sat clay packed in a 6’6” by 4’ by 3’ deep cut. Most likely the excavation process finished the work of removing this stone
My field measurements (some approximate) for clearest features of ENE/WSW site on E/W ridge, going from front=western to back=eastern ends (’’ = metric conversion) :-
From back end of Hornworks 1 to edge of feature A = 0.2m. A is 4.8m wide by 3.8m f-b (flat uneven stones on slight mound. ? chamber of long cairn). At 2m from A is a a small projecting slab, then 6.1m from this to edge of main mound B. This is about 12m wide . At 6.5m from mound edge is a 0.68x0.3 m projecting slab with angled top. Then another 1.4m to edge of feature B1 3.1m wide at summit (stone- & slab-filled hollow. ?chamber). From this edge 1.4m a to 1.1m long orthostat by back edge (slab showing 0.6m of top) is 1.4m. From eastern edge of B1 to mound base 6m, then 3.3m to back end of Hornworks 2. Only 0.5m to right of B1 is similar hollow B2 but 1.7m diameter (? another chamber – or is seperating strip a product of excavation ??). Behnd this is depression C3 measuring 2.3 by 2.2-2.6m (? robbed chamber).
Other sources :-
Site [’47x12 by 3.6m’ at E end] O.S. in 1964 height 2m E to 0.9m W
Hornworks 1 [NMRS ‘14.6m’ across horns internally at front] {Davidson and Henshall NW horns project 3m and are 0.5m high}
B [’ >12 by 3.58m high’] O.S. 2m {15 wide by 16.8 f-b and 1.4m high at NW end, 2.1m to GS}
Hornworks 2 [externally ‘24.1m’ across] {SE horns 24.7m across, project 8m and height NE 0.3 S 0.7m}
In “Harray – Orkney’s Inland Parish” the map for the Grimeston district shows a field called Green Brae field directly south of a site called Syabank site. These are described as a “Pictish mound” and a “hole near an ancient grave or cists” respectively.
Work started again last week [volunteers needed for on-site sieving this week and next – see News]. Went round yesterday and there was a JCB on top of the mound. A strip has been exposed behind where they [re-]excavated the cist last year and I could see levels being taken and limited digging apparently underway. Having heard Radio Orkney this morning the reason for hesitancy is obvious, finding microliths being even more labour intensive than normal tool finding [alas volunteering is forbidden me]. My own betting for a settlement is still the relict beach at the bottom of the road.
P.S. there is no Mine Howe season this year, but it is open for visitors and there is a small shop / interpretation centre on site.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31NW 16 at HY33111538.
The earthhouse lies in a field that was uncultivated heath until the year in question, under a low flattish grass-covered mound with a few large stones protruding on its top, whose removal uncovered flagstones measuring on the order of 5’ x 2’ and 4-5” thick. Several smaller stones “at this spot” included one 9” by 7½” by 2” with a cupmark and another less geometric 9x5x8” block with one 4” across 2” deep and at right angles to this on another side two together each 3x1½ “.
In levelling the mound the souterrain’s corbelled passage entrance was found just W of the stones. The passageway was 2-3’ wide and 2’ deep. An oval chamber 12’ by 8’ was not excavated until the August 1927, the roofing slabs having by the been removed. It too was only about two foot high. There were no “built walls” found and so the building wasn’t well preserved. Afterwards the farmer buried the site.
Finds from the chamber: a roughly dressed 10x4x3½ tool similar to ones found in St. Andrews (one in Petrie’s notebook 8 page 41 and another at Yinstay), St. Ola (the underground structures at Hatston Aerodrome) and Eynhallow (Monkerness), but better known in Shetland, and two anthropomorphic stones. Of the latter one was an oblong 10½” by 3½” by 2¼” with a groove near one end and the other of less defined shape 17x8x2-3” with a similar groove picked out round the narrower end. Similar objects have been found in Orkney in South Ronaldsay (from a hill near How farm – either Big Howe or Little Howe), in Birsay (unnamed location) and more in another district of Harray (on an unnamed farm in Netherbrough and two below a 40’ diameter grass-grown circle on the Brecks of Netherbrough that has probably gone).
At the end of 1926 a piece of heathland was coming into cultivation, and in harrowing a low grassy mound the farmer uncovered a 3’ wide 6” deep ‘causeway’ of dressed stone 55’ external diameter that ran around it. The farmer removed several large protruding stones and then the ‘causeway’, under which he found a large barbed flint arrowhead. When he started levelling the mound the souterrain entrance came to light. This was investigated in December. In April 1927 burials turned up at opposite sides from the mound. In August the souterain was finally excavated before being covered over. In this area finds included primitive anthropomorphic idols and what sounds like several pieces of rock art.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31NW 16 at HY33111538. The two burials were both about ten yards from the mound’s centre, which would place them outside the circular “causeway”. To the NE was a coffin-shaped cist. 6’ by 2’4”-3’ by one foot deep containing much decomposed bone and on the SW a flagstone covered bone particles occupying a hollow. At the foot of the long cist lay another piece of possible portable rock art, resembling a prism shape 5” by 4¾” with cavities on two faces, one 3½x3x¾” and the other 2” across 5/8” deep
John Fraser in the first volume of the Proceedings of the Orkney Antiquarian Society describes a N/S alignment for the 4’ by 4’ remains of a once larger standing stone. Come the 1946 Inventory and it is a triangular 6½” thick stone of dimensions 2’9” by 3’3”. But the record card photo in the Orkney Library’s Orkney Room shows a rectangular portion below a roughly triangular top, and the sharp curve on the LH side looks like an outsize bulb of percussion from a hard blow. And now, un-noted, the stone has possibly been further reduced in height to just the lower half.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY50SE 3 at HY57460413 mostly survives as a 10th century chapel and burial-ground, the former turned into a 16th C laird’s house, but two souterrains were found beneath the chapel.
Only one has been published. Though it is described as a 10m long curved chamber running E/W, leaving at the cliff edge, it actually runs more N/S at the coast and runs to about 50’ i.e. continuing underground for some distance past the chapel. This latter information comes from a website started by two ex-diggers (hopkinsweb.org.uk/orkney/), with the earth-house shown as a tunnel in the plans incorporated within their diaries. Unfortunately this only covers the dig’s first two years. Apart from this there is very little published about the Newark excavations, either on paper or online, excepting the NMRS details. Which is a shame as the last entry is the discovery of a skeleton lying on a slab that may have served a platform.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY50SW 11 at HY53840223 is a metre high earth and stone mound listed as a burnt mound on account of burnt stones recorded by the OS, but this report has had doubts cast on it by the farmer never having seen such material [it is rather far up the hill and there are likelier candidates by the stream, possibly including the duckpond]. One half has been severely reduced in height, probably by quarrying.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND59NW 1 at ND52619915 was conical before somoeone hoicked out the top, and still stands 7’6” high. It is reported as a turf-covered mound of small flat slabs (RCAMS 1946 fragile slaty material) and is roughly 70’ across. Despite the damage it is believed that a 2’3” x 2’4” x 6” stone projecting from the depression on an E/W alignment is the top of an undisturbed chamber maybe 7’ high.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND48SE 2 at ND46468411 is a two metre high burnt mound with an Early or Middle Bronze Age ‘house’ at the NE, the latter being a probably 6.5x4m oval structure with cells in a 4’ wide wall and a tank in the middle. At one time a secondary wall lent itself to a walkway before this was covered itself. The same gentleman that gave us the Tomb of The Eagles further along discovered this excellent site fortuitously, after digging through a fair portion of the eastern half of the mound to disclose the stonework. The remainder of the mound has a lovely cut face by the B.A. house and Hedges claimed that entire this would have been the greatest burnt mound in Orkney – having seen Pickaquoy I’m not so sure. The mound as excavated comprises many deposits of burnt stone, peat ash and some ‘cramp’.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31NW 33 at HY32351937 is sheltered by the deep defile of the Burn of Corrigall at the south of the site but has been extensively (though fortunately not thoroughly) quarried in parts. The ground plan’s asymmetry resembles broch villages such as Aikerness (Gurness) and Lingro on a slightly smaller scale – on the order of Round Howe in overall size. The external diameter is in the region of 53’ with an estimated eight foot thick wall. Where the ditch about the broch is deeper, six drystane courses 4’6” high with an apparently completely vertical inner wall-face can still be seen over an 8’ stretch, elsewhere the foundations survive in a couple of places. At one time a fairly extensive passage 2’ wide came to light during farm works – the farmer having removed the stone infill then replaced this. A 33’ wide ditch appears to surround about half the central broch, being 40’ from it. This ditch is deeper at the north and north-west then comes to a sharp halt at the NE due to agricultural processes having levelled the ground. On its western lip an earthen bank still stands from 2’6”-5’6”, and now spreads about 9’ across. Between broch and ditch at all sides but the south are indeterminate walls, mutilation and ground disturbance obscuring the nature of the auxillary buildings there.
In his eighth Munro lecture Gordon Childe “discussed the so-called inscription found on the edge of the bed in hut 7, but despite the presence of a burial under the bed, he now doubted whether it was really epigraphic.”
In 1862 Petrie dug this tumulus (RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY50NW 8) and found the low (2’ to 2’ 6”) remains of a broch measuring 19’ 8” internally, with walls varying from 8-10’ across containing two 1’11’-2’ wide (one had a short 3’ entrance at right angle) by 2’ high passages in them. There was a wallface surrounding the broch at 2’ distance and the whole stood on a 90’ diameter mound. Both had entrance gaps ~ENE but slightly offset. All this stood within two banked arms with a western gap of 15’ and a large obstruction blocking the east end (total enclesd area 225’ by 175’ according to Hedges, banks 24’ by 2’6” high). Between broch and embankment varied from 66-78’ With its surrounding banked enclosure the nearest parallel is between here and Dingishowe where the Campston/Venikelday site is a broch with ring-ditch on current thinking. There are passages on Petrie’s plans but no guard cells, which means either it survived to the base of the 2nd level as Hedges thought or only remained to the bare minimum below where they would have been. Shortly before 1880 the modern road passed through the site, though locals spoke yet of passages beneath the road. The 1946 excavation on the Langskaill side found a “tomb with burnt bones” without saying if it came from the broch or the mound it stood on, but would have said if this were a cist, so what was it – The Howe had a Neolithic grave turned into a souterrain. From the extensive geophysics even outside of the enclosure the site seems extensive and probably multi-period, and the (2.8 by 0.7m) LBA flat-bottomed ditch dug at the mound’s base this century reminds me that antiquarians thought Campston to be a henge on account of its similarity to the Ring of Bookan. Easiest to call it a broch really!
Highly unusual for us not to know the overall dimensions of a broch – if I’d known I’d ‘ave done it mi sen. So this is likely the cairn below Cumminess mentioned on 1907. Described as amorphous, however viewed from several directions it supplies the standard broch profile even if most of the west side has been lost to the sea and a planty creugh [also planti-crû or planticru, used to shelter young plants] built into the east. A few feet south of the highest surviving point of the mound is a 2m high cut (mound top less than a metre higher if that) measuring 25m by 14m is seen extending out to the seaward side. A curving broch wall 6m in length (in 1966 leastways) survives to eight courses of middling blocks in the western half of its northern edge, with more walling and slabs carrying on to the eastern end. Opinion is undecided as to what feature this represents – outer wall-face [of the tower presumably], intra-mural cell or a gallery’s inner face. In 1966 Ordance Survey believed there might be further traces of this wall to the north. Though the cut is ascribed to coastal erosion I would not rule out an unrecorded trench (or possibly even accidental survival of an original space) because it is such a regular shape. Sometime between 1846 and 1966 other features by here – consisting of a small structure and a very short passage – have either been lost or subsumed by vegetation. The passage, about 0.6m long and 1.12m in height, “adjoined” the seaward end of the wall. This led into a structure (perhaps later in date) 3m N/S by 2.4m E/W shaped like part of a circle.
Though this is unlikely to be a broch settlement mention should be made of Gorrie Knowe between here and the Brig o’Waithe. HY21SE 76 at HY28091059 appears in the Orkney Name Book as a house but the site is a circular/sub-oval structure originally 10m across surviving to three courses as a curving wall fragment. And given that The Howe had a Viking Era settlement an aerial survey found two rectangular cropmarks, HY21SE 101 at HY28101061, not yet located on the ground.
An S.W.R.I. talk in 1936 mentions the same site [“The Orcadian” 17/9/36]. Coming from the Newark direction, a short distance from reaching the Peedie Castle rock stack two graves found in the mound Howe Hurcus “at one time” led to the attempt to dig it away being abandoned.
So perhaps two short cists rather than a long cist.
NOT A LISTED SITE
First came across this as a stone row described as being on Milldoe Hill, but site is shown on old-maps in the Breck of Elicant far downslope at HY36702037. On the 1:25,000 this locates it west of an irregular round enclosure below the 37 legend.
Further info from “The Orkney Herald” of May 4th 1932 :-
Seven stones projecting 3-12” from a two foot thick peat moss. Each is aligned E/W though the whole runs approximately NE-SW. The closest two are six feet apart but the otherwise at greater distances from one another. Though folklore mentions a man taking fright when he uncovered bones in the mossy soil the only one ever opened (by another local on more serious intent) proved completely bereft of materials.
The article says that they are 22 chains SW of Queenamidda on a line taking in that farmhouse and Hayan, though a more direct route goes through Blubbersdale and Quanterness farmhouses.
When looking at the well picture it as first excavated, at the base of a 15’ stairway with 18 steps between the top and bottom landings. In 1932 they had to crawl in backwards ! Removal of two unbonded steps revealed a hidden chamber – is this the kind of thing one should expect at Mine Howe perhaps ?
The 1798 and 1842 Statistical Accounts describe this as semi-circular and 140 yards across, having walls 12’ high and 9’ thick. If there were internal compartments these were filled with rubbish at that time. Unfortunately the site was heavily ‘quarried’ for stone in order to make the glebe wall i.e. that around the minister’s land. They believed the site might have once been used in part for burials. There were further walls on the outside of the “great wall”. In the various compartments were found “peat ashes” along with animal bones (including deer horn), shells and small bone rings.
In 1931 a cist and some prehistoric fragments were excavated here (notes accompanying photo of ongoing excavations, no follow-up article found). Probably the cist is the ‘box’ I found.
In “The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Scotland , 27...” by Raymond Lamb it is said this site is akin to Bretta Ness in Rousay, which upon excavation was found to be a crannog. As water levels have risen by a meter and it still isn’t cut off from the land I somehow doubt this. But perhaps like Wasdale this is a possible causewayed island dun?
From RCAHMS I would add that there are several rectangular banks under a foot high to the S and W and that one of these connects to one of two probable defensive walls at 27m and 42m from the centre.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY40NE 23 at HY48240699 is a mound mutilated by a WWII flagstaff, now gone, and the cutting of peat. The cairn slopes down from south to north, in 1965 coming down to a metre high from a maximum of two-and-a-half, and measures 20m N/S by 12m E/W (which is why I have not entered this as a long barrow).
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY40NE 20 at HY48330698 is a much-quarried earth-and-stone feature about fourteen metres across and a metre high that is covered by peat. This prominent site is the one shown on the O.S. map as a cairn.
From another source I find it is now reduced to a height of 0.7m, and that there is another cairn close by. Source not noted.
” straight from thence to the hill till it comes to the fyve hillocks and Ston Loe, and thair sett ane march stone and two witnesses “. The NMRS hedges its bets as to which of two mounds is the boundary, calls one the Howe of Staneloof outright and gives the other that name in the fieldnotes.
In 1835 in excavating a mound group a tumulus with four small crude cists about two central large well-formed cists was found. This is presumably what was expected at Skae Frue. Unfortunately HY21SE 28 is only given as being “near Stromness” and the same book also uses the same phrase for Sandwick, so this probably refers to Stromness the parish rather than the town.
HY21NW 20 goes by the name of the main barrow at HY23521720. The Knowe of Angerow/Angcrow /S of Velzian is a 35’D 4’ tumulus which has been opened from top – a cist was noted by a local to have been removed in1882 [which may simply mean that it was known to have been too late for inclusion in that year’s O.S. map] To its south by 10 yards is a slight swelling of some kind. Then at HY23471715 there is a much mutilated possible barrow with what has been taken to be a cist slab 0.4m long and 0.3m high protruding at the NW.
The two islets both have a brown silty layer.
HY26031502 Site 1, is an oval islet 60m from shore in shallows, connecting to The Ness and its supposed chapel with a slab causeway [at other sites called stepping stones ?] with longer axis having wall remains. A precise trial dig on the south in the surrounding loch uncovered a bone fragment and BA potsherds (est. 2500-2000 BCE), found slightly over 6m away in under a foot of stones like the rubble covering the islet (out to a few yards from the edge). It seems that the building had been built on flagstones placed over the considerable rubble layer used to construct the crannog.
HY26091490 Site 2 is instead crescentic with no evidence of occupation, and the silty layer directly over the substratum, once part of neck of land (in recent history). Which suggests a burnt mound – there is another near the Voy junction, and a smaller islet (HY26451411) further down the loch is not far from the Redland burnt mound.