Field Visit
Date 1999
Event ID 639920
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/639920
This Maes Howe type chambered cairn is located in an enclosed field. It measures some 23m in diameter and stands up to 3.5m high, forming a prominent feature on the otherwise flat landscape of Start Island. It was opened and used for a time as a potato store but has now been closed up again. It was last entered in the 1960s by Mr Skea of Garbo, Sanday, who reported to Henshall that it contained a passage leading to a tall, rectangular chamber with oversailing walls and an intact roof; no side cells were noted. Much of the mound is now covered with turf but there are a number of exposures, particularly to south and south-west sides. Here traces of a wall face and stony mound matrix are visible, together with a stone-filled depression, representing part of the original passage. It was noted that, where visible, the stone forming both walls and mound matrix is in an extremely poor and crumbling condition. Note: Site is incorrectly referred to in NMRS and elsewhere as Mt Maestry or Mt Misery.
Coastal Zone Assessment Survey, 1999
