Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland

Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016369

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016369

You must enter this tomb as did neolithic man, uncomfortably on your hands and knees! But it is worth the effort of crawling along the 5.5m long passage, not just to see the burial chamber but also to appreciate the psychology behind the design of the tomb and the practical difficulties of any funerary rituals. This is a Maes Howe type of chamber, set within a circular cairn (the roof is modern); the main chamber has four side-cells, one of them double, and the quality of the masonry is very high. Both chamber and cells were cut into solid bedrock and, like Maes Howe, the entrances into the cells are somewhat higher than the chamber floor. When first explored in the 19th century, the skulls of twenty-four dogs were found on the floor of the chamber, perhaps as a token of tribal identity. There were also the remains of eight skeletons in the main chamber and cells.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).

People and Organisations

References