roadside depression C at HY496067 the only one of ‘my’ depressions on the map (the 1:25,000 but strangely not CANMAP). ~12m wide entered by a narrow track ~6m long which crosses the bank around the central depression.
Image credit: wideford
wideford
The tomb from which this came was later to become part of a broch
A mound of stones and earth only a couple of metres across dated by Hedges (TL specimens rather than an excavation proper) to the Middle Bronze Age. He calls it Graemeshall in two articles, both of which err in giving it a transposed NGR of HY017495. It was used for a short period compared to other burnt mounds and is of an early date for Orkney.
Mound as seen from coast, a few of spoil heap’s stones at far left.
Image credit: wideford
Coming through St.Mary’s from Kirkwall instead of turning on to the Churchill Barriers carry on past Graemeshall. At the bottom of the hill the mound of Mass Howe is at the coast on your right. There is a new coastal path at the base of this. The first few yards are a bit skewhiff, thereafter it is a little narrow and you need to watch out for tussocks of grass and small holes. Leaving Mass Howe you see the WWII buildings and the burnt mound is in the same field. For now I avoided the usual invisiBull and continued further along the short circuit. Just past the buildings there is a long heap of large stones and rocks and fragments. This is where the well(spring) is or was. To its right the small mound you can see is the site (I think Rami Geo might be a more useful name). A little more than a rise there is a slight exposure of material and a few stones, some probably earthfast. The Tower of Clett is the stack that you can see as you look further along the path. From the nearest the path gets to the burnt mound there is a length of fence indicated on CANMAP as where a burial was discovered (HY40SE 17 at HY49480160 – I can find no further details). So perhaps the mound’s black earth is funerary, not settlement. Looking uphill you can see a large mound by the main road and a second or lower extension of the first below this. The very top of this you may just make out the foundations of a sundial of a folly type. Lower on the slopes seems to be earlier stuff. Continuing along the path you quickly come to where it can follow the coast no further and turns straight up to meet the main road. This section is composed of loose stone fragments that could prove tricky in wet weather.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY40SE 10 at HY4949701654 is less than a metre high and tidgy, a scant few metres across (presumably why it isn’t on the 1882 map). A mound of black earth but no burnt stone, it lay next to a now buried well (very likely a wellspring)
showing trench with stones and ‘standing stone fence’ passing in front of broch (and therefore later build)
Image credit: wideford
(For those with transport) Sunday July 30th there are guided tours from one o’clock till five, including the ongoing excavation of an ‘early’ Neolithic structure with central hearth.
