Publication Account
Date 1997
Event ID 1017144
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017144
This is one of the best-preserved heel-shaped cairns, probably because it lies in what has become, since the formation of blanket peat, an inhospitable area of small lochs and moorland, although around 3,000 years ago its potential for farming would have been considerably better (colour photograph on p.32). The cairn was built on a low knoll and the kerb can be traced very easi ly, one or more courses high, showing that the lower part of the cairn had a vertical external face (there are tumbled stones beyond the original face); in the centre of the concave facade on the ESE side is a passage leading to a trefoil-shaped burial chamber. Both chamber and passage are now roofless, bur their walls still stand over a metre in height, in places using very large stones.
A second tomb was excavated in 1959 on the west side of Punds Water, which was almost circular externally with an interior divided into five small benched cells round a central area, very reminiscent of domestic houses of the same period (HU 322714) .
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Shetland’, (1997).
