Orkney Smr Note
Event ID 614008
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Orkney Smr Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/614008
'Another of these tumuli stands near the centre of the parish. It is of a truncated conical form, hollowed at the top, 90 yards around the base, and 16 feet in height. It appears to have been surrounded by a mound at a distance of 20 yards from the base, but has not been opened within the memory of man.' [R1]
Cut in two by branch road . Excavated by Farrer and Petrie. External diameter 40 - 45 feet, internal 20 - 28 feet. Entrance ENE. Complete plan not obtained, condition very ruinous. Had been surrounded at from 66 to 78 feet out, by an embankment or wall. Apparently no full publication. [R2]
Remains mutilated, unrecognizable as a broch. Outer bank dug away in N, fairly well defined for remainder of circumference. Possible inner bank on N, 11 meters wide and 11 meters from outer bank, but this may be excavation soil. OS visit Apr 1964
The outworks remain clear enough, and their form suggests that the central feature was a broch, but this is certainly not evident from the remains of the central feature itself. Recently-dug drainage ditches in the field W of the road (containing the larger portion of the site) suggests that land improvement, threatening the site, may be contemplated.RGL Apr 1979
A tree plantation now obscures the W side of the road.
Site is probably related to Minehowe, OR 63
HY 510 060 GSB Prospection was commissioned to carry out geophysical survey, utilising magnetometry, at four sites in the vicinity of Minehowe in August 2001 (see DES 2000, 65-66).
HY 508 059 At Round Howe strong magnetic responses coincided with the central broch mound and possible activity areas between the broch itself and its surrounding earthworks.
Report lodged with Orkney SMR and the NMRS.
Sponsors: Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Archaeological Trust, Orkney College.
Editor's note: HS were a sponsor of the work at Minehowe in 2000.
N Card and J Downes 2001
Round Howe (HY 50 NW 8) lies 300m to the SW of Mine Howe. Since its 19th-century investigations by Farrer and Petrie, this site has been considered to be a broch. Although the central structure, recorded by Petrie, was removed by road construction in the late 19th century, the surrounding oval enclosure, defined by a large bank, has survived. Excavation was intended to explore the nature of the site and its possible links with Mine Howe. Four large slot trenches were opened across the enclosure and bank. The bank was shown to be of single-phase construction of redeposited natural boulder clay. No prehistoric structures were located within the enclosure between the bank or upon the remains of a central natural knoll where the 'broch' was presumed to stand. At the base of the knoll, however, a large ditch, c 5m wide by 1.5m deep, was encountered in two trenches. The limited number of finds from the whole site - only a few sherds of Iron Age pottery and some stone tools - and the lack of general settlement evidence, is not characteristic of a broch site. A detailed contour survey of the site was also conducted.
Archive to be deposited in Orkney SMR and the NMRS.
Sponsors: HS, Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Archaeology Trust, Orkney College, University of Sheffield
N Card and J Downes 2002
