Publication Account
Date 2002
Event ID 585274
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/585274
HY20 2 GREEN HILL 2 ('Green Hill of Quoyness')
HY/25000284
Probable broch on the shore in Hoy I., next to Burra Sound, the name of which implies the presence nearby of a recognisable stronghold in Norse times [4, 101]. It is now a green mound of earth and stones which is now 3.7 - 4.0 m (12-13 ft.) high; half of it has now been destroyed by coastal erosion [5]. It seems first to have been disturbed in 1812 when stone was removed to build the nearby house and human bones were found. When it was dug into again in about 1887 by James Cursiter [4] burial cists were found on top of the mound which revealed the remains of a broch at least 6.1 m (20 ft.) high, more than half of which had been eroded by the sea even at that time. Human bones, exposed by erosion, were noted at the North-west corner of the mound in 1979 [5].
Sources: 1. OS card HY 20 SW 7: 2. Cursiter 1923, 49-52: 3. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 379, 108-9. 4. Hedges et al. 1987, 101-2. 5. Lamb 1989, 12.
E W MacKie 2002
