RCAHMS record no. HY20NW 20 is a mound 10 to 12 feet high mostly thought to be either the outwork to a broch (some instead go for a blockhouse underneath ) or an earlier promontory fort, the only dating evdence being broch-style pottery (finds lost), It lies ESE/WNW with an interior of the order 90’ by 55’. The isthmus neck is blocked by a bank 10’ wide and the same in height, in which Raymond Lamb saw walling traces with erect slabs amongst the rubble as well as what is left of a much slighter outer bank and ditch. On the mound antiquarians thought there had been a substantial stone structure reduced to slight scattered remains that led them to deduce 12’ thick walls consistent with a broch. Some large stones stood in situ, more so at the cliff’s west side. The mound’s slopes abound in walling traces and earthfast stones. A shell midden yielded those fragments of the coarse ware called broch-type. RCAHMS couldn’t find the midden later, but given how cnfusing the site lies I would suggest that this is the midden later found on the south side of the clifftop behind the supposed blockhouse. Much of the promontory contains wall traces and earthfast stones.
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Take pedestrian ferry from Stromness to North Hoy (alternately take the Houton ferry and drive from Lyness). From Moaness pier follow the road straight up until you’re nearing the reservoir at the start of the Rackwick Trail then turn right onto the road that starts parallel to Round Hill. Unless you own property here you will have to leave any transport behind when you reach the interpretation board, opposite which is a people gate, Just past Murra turn left. The road turns into a track as you approach Head. At Head turn left towards Braebister Burn then turn right snd follow the fence. The brough lies between Braebister Burn and the steep-sided Yelting Geo. The footbridge you see is for folk taking the coastal walk from Moaness continuing to the Kame of Hoy, the silo drums upstream had been aadaped as a fish hatchery. Along the mound is a diagonal line that brings to mind days excavating with wheelbarrows. This a grassy path about a metre wide that goes all the way up and ends at the edge of the best preserved section. I’d love it to be an antique track there but sespect the way was used for plundering stones for work elsewhere. The mound definitely feels like two different sites, one upon another. The archaeolgy goes all the way up to the cliff edges, so watch your step – the day I was there 40mph winds buffeted me as I risked the photos but no way was I circling taking video, you could die that way.
broad face showing number of cracks – until fairly recently thay wondered how it stood as they saw no packing material
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edge of stone with packing stones revealed by an arc of scouring
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Found during work at the Finstown sub-station “A team from ORCA Archaeology, carrying out exploratory excavations at the proposed site of an electrical substation development in Orkney, has unearthed nine, half-metre tall stone-carved objects.” orkney.com/news/finstown-finds plenty of lovely images shown
what looked to be an interior structure revealad as wall with probable radial pier at left
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the broch wall and what looked to be an interior structure
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looking over mound with exterior? broch wall left of centre
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The first time I went I came south from the Gloup via a group of minor earthworks only to be stopped by a field fence. Next time I walked the Sandside road and a track runs across the field to the promontory. Owing to its hazardous nature this is blocked by a fence. As I stepped over I saw my foot going below the level of the other, and having short legs and being alone I might get stuck for many hours. But a high-zoom camera worked wonders,
NMRS record no HY50NE. An excavation, cut short by the death of the director in 1982 , revealed on the N side a regularly curving segment of ground-galleried broch-type wall 13’6” thick which he thought could be a structure of the hypothesised ‘semibroch’ type adduced along the west coast of the Scottish mainland and in the Western Isles. Others suggesrted it might be a ‘forework’ or ‘blockhouse’ fort. In 2002 Euan Mackie suggested from plans of 1984 and and 1987 observations that inserted into a ground-galleried broch had been “a proper wheelhouse of Shetland type (with built radial piers)” otherwise only found in Shetland at that time. As well as the wall and traces of domestic structures on the promontory itself there are almost a hectare of dark midden deposits on the W side. Though the promontory isn’t connected to the steep-sided Stack of Mustack/Moustag (HY50NE 28 HY59260743) it is likely it once was, with the suggestion that this was part of the Iron Age complex – two or three orthostats protrude from a low ~19mD mound at the far end.
found during present excavations archaeologyorkney.com/2017/08/28/amazing-finds-at-cata-sand-early-neolithic-houses-and-19th-century-whales/
Scockness mound from main road
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seen from landward side slight hollow on top
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mound with hills in background
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small stones and gravel
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exposed stones with rule out to 1m
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looking down on exposed stones
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layered stone near pond – just geology ?
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One day I manaaged to walk from the pier on Rousay as far as Scockness. After navigating a field gate I followed the irregular shoreline to reach one of those enigmatic traditional ‘Picts underground houses’, which sits on a spit of land between Mae Sand and a tidal pond. From my visit it looks like as if it has been excavated at least once, with a slight hollow on the top and the pond-side rather too regular for simple erosion to my mind, and I fondly imagine the removal of a rectangular feature.
On the other side of the hill, by the N end of the Loch of Scockness, and only seperated from the sea by South Sand storm beach, is the Taft o’ Faraclett Broch excavated in 1857. And up on the hill at Scockness Farm in 1994 an excavator hole showed that the chapel and burial ground had been built on a settlement mound also probably Iron Age. The Yetnasteeen standing stone is on the opposite hillside, a hill topped by the Faraclett mound that may be simply ‘natural’.
Only the south side of RCAHMS record no. HY45SE 2, a grass-covered mound of gravel and small stones, survives due to erosion at the N and W part. It is 1.3m high and 12.5m E/W by 8m, thought not large enough for a broch so either a settlement or perhaps what’s left of a cairn. Not a burnt mound they believe, owing to the absence of burnt material.
Yernasteen and Faraclett Mound seen from Scockness
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stone with the place it was quarried from
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beginning of lower chamber entrance seen from inside
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