wideford
raised circular bits between mound and farmhouse
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mound from near top of Stoneyhill Road, stone still not triangular
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Continuing up the Dounby road past the Howe crossroads, the Appiehouse Stone is at the top of the mound that can be seen behind the farm on your left. I have never found it before as coming from this direction it is basically invisible – the first sighting is when you look carefully as you come level with the summit. Coming from the Dounby direction it is much easier to see. Only it looks rather unlike the photo on the site record, being equally irregular in shape but nearer a rectangle than a triangle, unless it manages to look drastically different on the other face. Alas the presence of sheep in such a relatively small space meant I couldn’t check inside the field to confirm or deny the apparent further reduction in height. On the northern side there is a big dip with a steep rise, but this is not regarded as a connected bank/ditch as there are more similar behind it.
On the southern side there are a few projecting stones distant from one another, but the mound is believed to be natural. However, in 2004 in the course of building works part of a stone structure came to light and they had to re-route the pipe around the mound. Unfortunately where this structure stood vis-a-vis the mound itself is not noted. On the southern side between the mound and the farm I spotted two very small very shallow circular mounds a few inches high, of which the more obvious one looks to have at least one stone projecting either close by or at the edge. Something to do with the structure or relating to the pipe, or simply natural ?
Walking from the Kirkwall-Stromness road towards Dounby on the left before reaching Springfield [which is before you reach the top of the Stoneyhill road] I saw a disused farmtrack and pursued it for a possible fresh view of the Grimeston district. Along the way I passed an broad raised track heading off left. Shortly thereafter on the other side I saw a ploughed field littered with stones and with a rise of a strange pinkish-red hue where the map showed nothing. Fortunately I took photos, because this is the spot where the Dale earthhouse is buried – the raised track goes to Dale. Nothing definite to look at, just sus
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.
The road to Stembister passes over a carefully built milldam. From here take the curving road left and the standing stone is behind the building on the left near the cliff. ‘Ware the goose ! On the day I went this kept me at bay and the haar ruled out photography at a distance. Alternatively take the track that goes right and the mound is at the top of the hill as seen from the junction. Once there you realise the burn in the valley below is really is quite some distance away for water-carrying activities to take place. If you are lucky there is only one gate to cross.
Proceeding about the mound weodorshins I felt it to be more square than circle, but didn’t think to take measurements. There are stones of various sizes dotted here and there over it, however none with any kind of burnt appearance. As to shape, it looks like a giant has taken an icecream scoop to the eastern half of it, giving the appearance of a broad ditch with the rim of mound still left intact. My opinion is that someone dug deep down to excavate summat, whether successfully or no, rather than for quarrying stone (though I am reminded just the weensiest of the Knowe of Geoso).
area of orthostat, showing flaky stones where burnt fragment seen
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The eastern ‘end’ of the mound looks less steep then the ‘west’ end, so perhaps the orthostat’s E/W orientation represents that of the tumulus itself. Its central concavity is about 6.8m by 5 and is a combination of stones and slabs like that in the general matrix. At the seaward side of this is the orthostat, which projects 67cm at the east end by 60cm at the west, and is 70cm long by 17 thick. It sits in a kind of pocket of flaky rocks – the RCAMS Inventory’s “slaty material” – which extends for 2.2m to the west of the stone’s east end and 1.6m north. All in all this would seem to confirm an E/W orientation for the whole.
Amongst the flakes and rock fragments I found a solitary 4cm fragment of semi-burnt bone (despite distinct carination I’m fairly certain it isn’t pot, not with all those tiny bubbles) presumably extracted by mammals as my eyes found nothing further there.
At the base to the N/NE is what looks like a test pit 1 x 0.7 x 0.3 metres, but I am not sure if the contents are indicative of the mound’s basal material or the old ground surface it was built upon. In front of them a stone 0.5 x 0.25m projects 7-18cm from the ground. Towards the sea, 8m from the east side of the base is a mound, approximately 5 by 4.2m and less than 0.3m high at the perimeter, containing several stones similar to those in the main mound.
The site lies between the present steading and the sea, the main structure being the excavated chapel. The published souterrain can be seen below its floor level emerging from the back at your right and coming ‘out’ from under the wall at a slight angle. It has been filled in with stones, as have two passages in the cliff face far to the E of the main site (I do not know their date) – presumably all by the excavators. It could be me, but I did not see the ‘tunnel’ exiting the cliff.
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.
In 1890 this hilllock was supposed the final resting place of a woman from about 150 years previous, who spent her years looking for the husband lost in a fight between Orcadians and Danes
wall standing behind NNE running ‘foundation’ – former part of hornwork ??
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long stone/s exposed at top of cairn’s N side
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Pay at the interpretation centre at (South) Liddel/Liddle – vital talk there included in the price. On the way to the main objective the BA house at the burnt mound is a must see. As you come closer to the tomb (RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND48SE 1 at ND47048849) there is a low bank of earth and exposed stones in a field by the track that may be the reduced remains of a cairn or barrow. It is about a couple of metres across and at least several metres long (though you can see the end), starting by the field boundary and at right angles to the fence. From this direction the Tomb of The Eagles (the White-tailed Sea Eagle, or erne, called aigle) is only another scruffy mound.
Coming closer you see several smallish stones projecting from this side, the full glory appearing as you move around, with a resemblance to Wideford Hill Cairn. Best viewed from just ouside the fencing – look from the coastal (i.e. east) side and south is to your left and north at the right. A little of the area about the entrance has been eroded, from just to the left of the passage to way over to the right, so that we are missing the actual entrance (there is no evidence for it being a connecting passage anyway. From the the north side of the central cairn a 1.5m wide wall, standing to 0.3m, runs NNE from the outer wall-face for at least 12m that is known about (? ‘death road’). This feature is later than the cairn but pre-dates the overlying rubble mound. On this side there is strong evidence of a hornwork curving to the NE, on the opposite side an apparently balancing earthwork is canny use of a purely natural formation.
In one place there is a short length of higher standing wall parallel to the NNE running wall behind its western face – part of said hornwork? Climbing on top of this side of the mound there is exposed a long dark stone (or possibly two) that looks to be an E/W course of wall, and looks to be shown on the plan in Davidson and Henshall. Others can describe the interior better than I. The south end side chamber has a display of skulls behind a screen. There is a light switch for this, but you have to keep it pressed in order to even attempt a photo. Davidson & Henshall mentions that quite aways from the cairn a ‘storm beach’, again to the NE, covers some kind of stone structures.
