newly exposed bone in short stretch of cliff-face between midden-y material and burn is too small for adult human I think, does not look articulated but something looks to be keeping it in position.
Image credit: wideford
wideford
Coming from the Staneloof-Hunclett track I had to climb over several inter-linked fences to gain access to the field next to the recognised Staneloof sites (unfortunately you cannot get into the area containing these for the new fence-lined ‘drains’ now making the field boundaries here). This is a rather marshy field, even skirting the edge my feet ended up getting damp – you definitely need ‘wellygogs’. Panning around I found myself half-jumping from grassy hump to hump, the marsh interweaving in similar fashion to Brymer. They were, as far as I could tell, irregular in shape apart from the one nearest to the fence by the Staneloof cairn. This, at very roughly HY485070, is circular and of decent size. I half-expected burnt mounds here. Trying to find a way down the field I saw a small quarry-like pool where rocks were. Couldn’t get there so splashed back to the mound. Which is when I saw dark material exposed near the apparent base, perhaps a failed attempt at digging peats. Very damp stuff. I picked some up and the texture was surprisingly granular, lots of spherods like small beads. It has taken a few days for the thought to arise that just maybe this was carbonised grain – but this would not explain the slightly larger irregular pieces. Should have taken a sample. Too late now.
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.
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ditch2006.htm filled with water [only partial view]
After years of waiting a storm has finally brought down from the cliif edge on the opposite side of the burn to the broch village a few sods containing the midden-y material. Definitely not pot of any kind. The coloured rock appears to be the same kind of burnt stone as I saw last week at the Loch of Tankerness. No doubt the next high enough tide will remove the material from the bottom of the cliff.
Probable settlement extent, single image not panoramic compilation.
Image credit: wideford
Burnt material in an exposed section.
Image credit: wideford
Typical composition of burnt section away from mound.
Image credit: wideford
Went for pics of the Gothic boathouse and decided to approach from the far side of the low ‘cliff’. With no expectations I was delighted to find very definite burnt mound material, ye olde black earth, in several areas four and more feet across exposed by livestock and rabbits on the topside. Most definitely it extends far beyond the obvious mound. This material occupies half to, say, two-thirds the field length. Past the actual mound along the cliff’s vertical section the burnt stones become the greater visible content, overlain by large irregular slabs as you near the boathouse end, where the ‘cliff’ peters out. Taking into account the various erect stones protruding along the shore we must surely be dealing with a series of burnt mounds and/or houses. Taking into account that the Bronze Age houses are at water level and below I would suggest that they preceded the burnt mounds.
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.
Here in Orkney there are/were quite a few of what Gregor Lamb terms finger stones. These were generally thrown by giants. In Eday there was one above Farahouse. Rousay had one where folk would lay a stone in passing. The Finger Steen or Byasteen is, or was, on a cliff near Wasbister shore. On Mainland, in Evie, is one of Cubbie Roo’s failed shots on Hoy. Cubbie Roo’s Stone in the Dale of Woodwick had several holes caused by his fingers. Also called Cobbie or Cubbie Roo’s Stone, it is shown on the 1882 map at HY36712306, between South Kews and the Styes of Aikerness mound (but to their east). In Stenness a huge broken up stone near Breckan /Millquoy was thrown by Hugboy from Hoy. Another put from Hoy again dropped short, landing at Ruff/Gruf Hill in Orphir – the Giant’s Stone had the mark of his thumbprint. Over in Firth near main road north of Redland Farm, on the north side of Brae of Muckquoy, a pair of stones thrown from Gairsay to Estaben landed. One was triangular ~6’x2’x9” and the other 4’x4’x2’, the with ‘fingermarks’ being on the latter. In Sanday a stone with the devil’s fingermarks is built into Lady parish church.
They didn’t always leave their idents behind. A natural boulder called the Giant’s Stone, 8’ x 6’ x 2½’, was thrown from the standing stone of Stembister (HY50SW 6 at HY54130239, moved to there from the fast-eroding cliff-edge) in St.Andrew’s parish. It landed on the very edge of Copinsay, at the highest point of the cliffs around that island a few yards from brink. Over in Rousay Cubbierow/ Kubbie Row’s Stone/ Cubbie Roo’s Stone was thrown from Fitty Hill on Westray to Lyra in the region of Frotoft, somewhere above Mt. Pleasant but below Keirfea hill. Which is still a large area to search. On Shapinsay Mor Stein/ Mör Steen (HY51NW 1 at HY52401685), thrown from Mull Head in Deerness, was called the Moow Stane after a giant who left his imprint.
On holier ground, down at the end of South Ronaldsay there is the Ladykirk Stone, first ascribed to a monster turned to stone for saving an anonymous Gallus ‘priest’ after a shipwreck. Only sometime before 1690 did it gain the name St.Magnus Boat, from a tale originally told of a standing stone (in the present-day only a pile of rubble) on the Scottish mainland called Sten Hone. The Ladykirk Stone’s two 10” long 1” deep depressions are likelier feet than anything boat related. In 1701 the stone was either six foot by four or four by two, now this oval beach ‘pebble’ is 3’8” long by 2’10” long – so are we missing umnntioned salient detail since lost ? The worthy is said to have built the St.Mary church on an old temple – not the present kirk but a grassy mound on the banks of the now drained Loch of Burwick.
Associated with the Knights of Stove legend is the King’s Stone in Sandwick. 3’ 6” x 2’ 3” it is said to have gained its name from what were described as carvings representing the word king. Originally in the meadows of Stove this was later incorporated into the foundation of a water mill which was then built into the corner of barn in same place. Alas, this is now harled over. In “Orcadiana” Gregor Lamb puts a case for the Faal Stane o’How being another king’s stone. In Orkney the local legends chiefs were called kings e.g. the king of the Brough Borwick warred with the righ of Verran, Voyatown.
In Kirkwall there was formerly a White Stone opposite the pulpit in St.Magnus Cathedral where folk went to repent. If not some prehistoric artefact it must surely have been connected with the saint’s cult in some way.
Knowe of Angerow and ‘companion’ from previous field
Image credit: wideford
looking across depression to other ‘hump’ by knowe
Image credit: wideford
Knowe of Angerow seen from corner of field to NE
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view of knowe with Lochs of Skaill and Clumly behind left and right respectively
Image credit: wideford
From the Knowe of Geoso you can easily make out the twin hump of this site as you spy along the fenceline towards Yesnaby. Only a few barred metal gates between the two sites, two-and-a-bit fields, passing by the practically invisible Knowe of Nebigarth along the way. Unlike the Knowes of Nebigarth and Geoso this is named for an individual – presumably like Craw Howe, named for the excavator. Being me I came the hard way, sneaking up on the main mound. Something didn’t quite add up when I compared what I saw with the description.
Approaching from the field’s eastern wall slightly downhill the first mound I came to had a central concavity where someone had dug the top. Looking past this (the much mutilated barrow or the rise?) I saw directly the left-hand hump of the big stuff with the knowe up and over to its right with big stones on top. Finding nothing I proceeded to the Knowe of Angerow itself, circling round taking pictures. No grass lies on the upper part of the mound, it lies bare with a few big stones mostly around the soil’s edge and on the surface. On the very top two slabs over a metre square rest on one another at an angle to the ground supported by just one blocky stone. Despite being rather less than half the size and sitting on a mound the setting reminds me a little of the Stones of Via. To its side some smaller stones lie on and in a low earthen platform (about a metre across) as if this had simply eroded out – it looks too fragile to have lasted long. There seems to be a bank or ditch about the knowe. I am not sure if this is so or whether it is part of the space between the two humps. Could the Knowe of Angerow be the remains of a bell barrow maybe ?
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.
Possibly of relevance is that according to “The Orcadian” of 15/12/06 ” boiling stones... were and are found in Sandwick at a place called Blossin, about half-a-mile south of Ward Head, Southerquoy”, although if Ward Hill=Head this could refer to the Knowe of Geoso instead.
From the Knowe of Geoso you can see the twin hump of the Knowe of Angerow in the Yesnaby direction. Proceeding you go down into the burn shown on the 1:25,000 as going to the Ness of Ramna Geo where there used to be a quarry. Past the curving steep southern bank enter the next field through the gate. Two of the Velziam mounds are simple rises here. The Knowe is in the NW field i.e. the next towards the Loch of Skaill. But from here all looks level pasture. Only coming from the Knowe of Angerow does the prominence reveal itself (looking to the Unigarth souterrain perhaps). All looks green now. Time pressing I await a proper season to seek out traces and mayhap a photo.
The field containing Velzian 27 ‘A’ and ‘B’ is presently stubble. For a vantage point I stood on ‘B’, the nearer to the Knowe, and took a pic of the Broch of Borwick (visible all along my walk from Angeron to Geoso).
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NW 18 at HY23161750 is the extremely scant remains, atop a prominent eminence, of an ~20’D barrow that has produced cramp in the past. Several turf-covered barrows, apparently excavated, that go under the name Velzian are in close proximity (HY21NW 27) ; ‘A’ is of earth with small stones, ‘B’ & ‘C’ are earthen. ‘A’ (10m D 0.6m high at HY23041733) and ‘B’ (6m D 0.5m high at HY23101736) are in the field to the W of the Knowe and ‘C’ (10m D 0.4m high at HY23181732) in the field south of them near the field boundary.
On the way to Skaill it struck me that the deep excavation arc could have been taken as a robbed broch wall. Despite modern misgivings as to the mounds composition and location perhaps this was exactly what happened, and the antiquarians were privy to personal accounts that haven’t come down to us (what little we know of Thieves Holm, for instance, are the odd few second-hand references)? Coming back from the Knowe of Angerow popped in here. In one area the most ginormous flat-top mushrooms about six inches across. Looking around a little poking found one of the many stones said to make up this mound. Very distinctly reddened, surely the sign of heating. Considering the number of burns there were on the slopes down from here to Skaill we could well be looking at your typical crescentic burnt mound (te passage and cistoid remains). And its present size could then be down to later additions that changed its nature. Of course it is likely to go even further back, the terminus of a sequence of mounds ?starting with the Knowe of Angerow and continuing with the Knowe of Nebigarth and the Velzian mounds etc.
This is one of 2 possible locations for a site of witch-burning in Birsay
An enclosure that may have originally been about a hundred metres across found at edge orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgarenclosure.htm