Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016335
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016335
An interesting example of a modern farm on exactly the same spot as an iron-age farm, Rennibister lies close to the shore with access to a fertile area of land which has attracted settlement since neolithic times as demonstrated by three chambered cairns. Another earth-house was found in the 19th century near Saverock, between Rennibister and Grain. The presence of the earthhouse at Rennibister was unsuspected until 1926 when its roof gave way beneath the weight of a threshing-machine passing overhead, and a modern hatch and ladder now allow entry through the roof into the chamber. Original access was down the narrow lintelled passage opening into the opposite end of the chamber, though with a width and height of only about 0.7m, it can never have been easy. The chamber is oval, its originally cor belied roof supported on four free-standing stone pillars, and its walls are furnished with five small recesses, one divided by a stone shelf. When it was first discovered, the end of the passage was filled with shells and domestic refuse, and a jumbled mass of human bones on the floor of the chamber proved to be the remains of six adults and twelve children. The fact that the skeletons were disarticulated implies that it was as bones rather than bodies that they were placed in the earth-house, presumably having originally been buried elsewhere, but it is not known why, or when, this was done.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
