Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016382
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016382
The location of Quoyness is very similar to that of Holm of Papa West ray South (no. 77), on an isolated peninsula, except that Eis Ness, unlike the Holm of Papay, is still, just, connected to the adjacent mainland. Both are outstanding examples of Maes Howe type tombs. Although lacking its original roof, the chamber stands intact to its full height of 4m, and consequently the external appearance of the cairn is also very impressive, the more so as it stands on an artificial platform. Three consecutive wall-faces can be seen, representing the inner cairn round the chamber, a middle revetment flush with the outer end of the entrance-passage and an outer casing. Originally the entrancepassage was roofed for its full length of 9m, but only the inner 3.5m is now intact and roofed at a height of 0.6m - the complete 9m crawl must have been a daunting experience!
Emerging on hands and knees, the chamber seems vast and soaring skywards. Low entrances open into six side-cells, all but two of which contained burials, and there were further burials in a cist sunk into a pit in the southern corner of the chamber. Unfortunately this was a depressingly bad 19th-century excavation in which an enormous amount of archaeological information was lost. Objects found in and around the tomb included bone and stone implements similar to examples from the contemporary settlement as Skara Brae (no. 61), and it is likely that the tomb was built very early in the 3rd millennium BC.
The wrecked but still impressive mound nearby to the south may well have been another chambered tomb, traditionally known as Egmondshowe (HY 676375); it is enclosed by an arc of eleven small bronze-age burial mounds connected by a bank. At least another twenty-six small cairns are scattered over the peninsula, implying its continuing sanctity as a burial place throughout the 2nd millennium BC. The excavation of Tofts Ness (no. 60) has shown, however, that sometimes such cairns are the result of domestic rather than funerary use.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
