Note
Date 13 February 2015 - 31 May 2016
Event ID 1044195
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044195
A precipitous promontory on the W coast of the Burwick headland, which itself lies on the W coast of South Ronaldsay, is defended by a series of ramparts and ditches. Forming a long narrow hammerhead and measuring about 100m from N to S by up to 26m transversely, the promontory is linked to the mainland by a narrow neck at the N end of the E side, which also forms a shallow saddle. A stony scarp on the seaward side of the saddle is probably the innermost rampart, outside which at least three and probably four ditches have been drawn across the neck, the innermost straight across the narrowest point and the outermost in a gentle arc; they are separated by upcast ramparts up to 5m in thickness by 2m in height. While the neck provides the only access, the exact position of the entrance is unknown. To the rear of the inner rampart, there are the footings of a rectangular building measuring about 12m from N to S by 4m internally, and the remains of at least ten other buildings can be seen elsewhere, leading to comparisons with monastic sites such as the Brough of Deerness (Lamb 1973, 78); in addition traces of a turf bank extend along the length of the E margin of the promontory. Midden material has been noted eroding from the cliff-edge along the W margin of the promontory ever since 1929 (RCAHMS 1946, 285, no.817; Wilson and Moore 1997), and this probably accounts for the description of broken bones appearing in the Name Book (Orkney, No.20, p 327), though whether the two supposed cists recorded then were the remains of burials or the fittings of internal buildings is unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2813
