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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 643848

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/643848

HY22SE 8 2836 2226.

(HY 2836 2226) Stone Cists found A.D.1866 (NAT)

OS 6" map, 0rkney, 2nd ed., (1903).

Twelve stone cists were found within an area about 20 yds square 'about 12 years ago' during cultivation. They were all empty. Portions of what is believed to have been a circular wall were also found at the same place.(Information from Donald Stephen, Northtown)

Name Book 1880.

David Stephen partly excavated a broch at Taft Greeny, in the parish of Birsay.

The ruins of the broch were contained within a mound about 10 ft high, through the surface of which stones protruded. Around its base was an accumulation of earth and stones in which were found a number of small square stone cists. Part of the wall of the broch was found, with a lintelled passage running along it, of which about 30 ft was cleared. Finds included rude unglazed pottery, two fragments of Samian ware, a small clay crucible, a few lumps of red haematite, portions of querns, and a piece of blue glass with white strips twisted 'in its substance, somewhat resembling Venetian glass'.

Much of the stone was removed for building purposes but vestiges of the structure were visible in 1882.

W G T Watt 1882.

The Commission identifies the site of the broch with the published site and states that it was known as the 'Knowe of Taft'.

RCAHMS 1946.

The area indicated is the highest point in a recently ploughed field. There are no traces of cists nor abnormally high stone content to be seen. No name is known locally.

Visited by OS (NKB) 18 May 1967.

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