Field Visit

Date July 1979

Event ID 617088

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/617088

Mound 8ft high, 65ft diameter. Some years earlier a passage

opened up, width 3-4ft, height seldom more than 2ft, examined for

a distance of 31ft. It runs NW for 21ft then turns W. Here it

branches at right angles on either side, probably an indication

of the proximity of the chamber or chambers proper. [R1]

Listed as uncertain. [R2]

Passage now blocked, no trace of it. On SE is a section of

drystone wall revetment forming an irregular curve for about 7m.

A single earthfast stone on NW, if this is a facing stone would

indicate a diameter of 18.5m. Cairn appears to stand on a

platform similar to Quoyness, Sanday, but this is very amorphous.

Name still current. OS visit Jul 70

The section of drystone retaining wall noted by OS can be

traced for 5.5m. There are a great many erect earthfast slabs

set about the mound, on its summit and sides and about its base,

apparently belonging to slab-structures which must be assumed to

post-date the mound. The possible Quoyness-style platform is

unclear. The passage used to open to the SE where the wall is

best preserved; it was blocked up to keep rabbits out. This was

in the years just before myxamytosis ie presumably the early

1950s.

At the head of a small narrow geo on the S side is the

erosion exposure of the section (as sketched on SMR card). At

1.3m below surface is the shale bedrock on which is developed a

black loam soil now buried beneath a midden of limpet shells,

animal bones and teeth, burnt stones and sticky black earth. A

small body sherd of coarse pot was taken from here. Above are

five courses of drystone wall beneath the modern soil.

This wall appears not to be a continuation of the retaining

wall of the mound, the slope of which begins immediately above

the exposure. It seems much more likely that the wall in the

section belongs to the same context as the slab-structures on and

around the mound and that slab-structures, wall and midden

represent phases of a settlement which is later than the burial

mound. (However, it cannot be ascertained definitely that the

midden is not stratigraphically lower than the mound). The

buried soil may be the surface on which the mound is built, or a

soil developed on the slopes of the mound between the abandonment

of the mound and the establishment of the settlement.

All-in-all, the relationship between chambered tomb and

settlement presents a most interesting problem.

On the E fringe of the mound a smaller erosion exposure

above the shore shows only broken shale fragments just below the

surface. A small base sherd of pottery similar to that from the

midden, was taken from this deposit at 150mm below surface.

Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Jul 79, inf. A Harcus, Houseby.