Publication Account
Date 2002
Event ID 585283
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/585283
HY20 5 WAREBETH CEMETERY (‘Monkerhouse’, ‘Monkers Green’, Warebeth’, ‘Stromness’, 'Stromness Churchyard')
HY/23780818
This probable broch is on the shore in Stromness and has been partly destroyed by the sea. Traces of a broch were seen in section by Laing and Petrie in 1866 [5] but the Royal Commission saw nothing [2]. In 1979 the broch was seen again, with associated outbuildings, in the low cliff immediately south of Warebeth Cemetery [4] and in 1980 the well was explored [6]; it was cut into the bedrock and entered by an almost vertical staircase c. 3 m high [7].
Various finds have been at various times, including plain and decorated pottery, hammerstones, a stone lamp, charred grain, a bronze pin and masses of animal bones and shells. Presumably these are from the broch: rumours of the presence of which, beneath the chapel and cemetery, were referred to in the earlier records. More finds may have been recovered from the site in the 19th century [3] including the lower stone of a rotary quern, a stone disc and a fragment of a large sandstone vessel.
A long-handled bone comb, two whalebone mattocks or hoes and a stone whorl are from “Stromness churchyard” and in the Hunterian Museum (B.1914.727, 730, 731 and 734: Cursiter collection). From "Stromness", and doubtless from the same site, are several potsherds, a boar's tusk, a whale vertebra vessel, a cut antler time and 2 disc or pot lids of slaty stone (B.1914.246, 295, 726, 728, 729 and 732).
Later material almost certainly from the same site includes a circular bronze brooch or mounting with the pin missing and decorated with gold plating on top [8 339, fig. 6: 9, 200] (B.1914.863). Obviously grave digging in the cemetery could have turned up some of the items.
In 1988 a C-14 date of 1740-1530 cal BP (AD 210-420) (GU 2385) was obtained for bones from the broch well and apparently "accords well with the typology of pot sherds also present in the midden" [7].
Sources: 1. OS cards HY 20 NW 12 and 17: 2. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 940, 327: 3. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 32 (1897-98), 236: 4. C. Morris in Discovery and Excavation Scotland, 1979, 24: 5. Laing 1868, 60-1. 6. Hedges et al. 1987, 91-2: 7. B Bell and S P Carter in Discovery and Excavation Scotland, 1980, 22: 8. Cursiter 1887, 346: 9. Shetelig 1940:
E W MacKie 2002
