| 1017141 |
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This is a very impressive square cairn, 10m across and edged with large boulders. Taller pillar stones stand at the corners, and a large recumbent stone lies across the entrance to the tomb. The cairn has been excavated, and the amount of stones cleared off the cairn gives some idea of its original height. A short passage leads into a cruciform chamber, the east side of which is still visible. In both the passage and the chamber, a layer of small stones had been laid down as a base for a paved floor at almost the height of the recumbent stone across the entrance. Before the excavation the passage and chamber were filled with earth and stones, possibly the original filling placed there when the tomb went out of use. Two tiny sherds of pottery, two small stone discs and a quartz tool were found amongst the filling, but there was no trace of any burials. [...] |
1997 |
| 1017144 |
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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. [...] |
1997 |
| 1017146 |
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This is a very long and arduous walk, and Ronas Hill is often wreathed in mist, but on a clear sunny day the view from the cairn is well worth the effort, as is the cairn itself. Set on the highest point in Shetland (450m OD), its very remoteness has ensured that this cairn has survived the centuries relatively unscathed. Its chamber is still roofed, although much of the covering cairn is now scattered. This was probably a heel-shaped cairn, and the passage, some 2.4m long, opens into a rectangular chamber, 1.7m by 0.9m. The sides and back of the chamber are built with very large slabs, and a single slab forms the roof at a height of just over a metre. Nothing is known of the original contents. [...] |
1997 |
