Archaeology Notes

Event ID 641440

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/641440

HP50NW 4 5287 0517.

(HP 5285 0505) Cairns (NR) (Human Remains found 1865).

OS 6" map Shetland, 2nd ed., (1900).

Excavations in 1863 and 1865 revealed, (R Tate 1866), in some cases, primary cremations with secondary extended inhumations; one, at least, of these contained in a rude cist. One cremation deposit yielded a Middle Bronze Age 'blade', now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

R Tate 1866; J T Irvine 1898.

The cairns are composed of large beach stones and are of exceptional size, the largest standing 8' to 10' high.

J T Irvine 1868

A group of cairns, of unknown extent, periodically covered and uncovered by blown sand.

RCAHMS 1946

Those excavated by Irvine appeared either to overlie or to be connected by traces of a wall of loose stones.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1870; J M Coles 1966.

No trace.

Visited by OS (RL) 10 May 1969

Field survey and excavation, as a response to continual wind and marine erosion, was carried out at the Sands of Breckon between 1982 and 1983 (HP50NW 1.01 & HP50NW 11.01). The field survey area was over 20ha in extent, and 42 sites of archaeological interest were recognised. No trace was found of the cairns reported by Irvine.

Historic Scotland Archive Project (SW) 2002.