Archaeology Notes

Event ID 641228

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/641228

HU25NE 21 2652 5708

See also HU25NE 30.

Excavation of a grassy knoll, prior to the foundation of a garden on the site, in front of the house at Modesty, led to the discovery of polished stone axes, stone knives, and fragments of vessels of steatite. The knoll measured about 20 yds by 10, and sloped gently to E and W but abruptly on the S. At the beginning of the 19th century a bank of peat, 4ft thick, had been removed from the site during preparations for the building of the house. The remains of other mounds lie about 20 yds W of the house. The finds are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

G Kinghorn 1895.

A broken stone axe and an axe-like whetstone, the latter measuring 7 1/4 by 2 1/2 by 1 3/8 ins, both from Modesty, were donated to the NMAS in 1911 by R C Haldane, Lochend, Lerwick.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1911.

The mound in which the finds were made cannot now be identified.

RACHMS 1946.

The natural knoll described above, now partly within the garden to the SE of Modesty, is situated at HU 2651 5708. All other mounds in the vicinity are also natural.

Visited by OS (N K B), 13 June 1968

(HU 2651 5708) Neolithic Pottery, Axes, etc found (NAT)

OS 1:10000, 1978