Orkney Smr Note

Date July 1970

Event ID 618828

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Orkney Smr Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/618828

Augmund Howe on map, but locally pronounced Egmondshowe, presumably from personal name Ogmundr. Intrusive s probably due to recognition of Egmond as a personal name.

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Augmund Howe - a burgh or fort in ruins and overgrown with grass and weeds, situated close to the beach and surrounded to landward by a circle of upright stones. On the E side where the ground is low, there is a semi-circular terrace, the outer edge of which is formed also by stones set upright. Height of fort is

about 18ft. [R1], Cf OR 307.

Much damage by stone-robbing. No wall-faces or signs of careful construction visible. [R2]

[RCAMS erroneously claims that NSA misapplies the name Augmund Howe to the Quoyness Chambered Cairn, but in fact NSA subsequently describes Quoyness under that name, and the descriptions of Augmund Howe and Quoyness fit the two sites very well. Henshall however incorrectly gives the name Egmondshowe as

an alternative name for the Quoyness Tomb, so does Childe]. Much damaged by stone-robbing. See OR 308 and refs.

East part of cairn eroded away by sea. The surviving west half measures 23m N-S along eroded face x 11m x 2.2m high. Stones laid on bed exposed in excavated centre, are core stones, and there is no definite indication of a chamber. It is doubtful if it has been used as a noost. The name Augmund Howe is not known locally. Cairn is probably associated with a surrounding bank.

OS visit Jul 70, [R3].