Archaeology Notes

Event ID 643867

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/643867

HY20SW 7 2500 0284

Not to be confused with ND39SW 1..

(HY 2500 0284) Green Hill (Brough) (NR)

Human Remains found A.D.1812.

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

Green Hill is a green mound of stones and earth, evidently that which Sir Walter Scott mentions in 'The Pirate' as the cairn where he landed on his way to the Dwarfie Stane (HY20SW 8). In 1812 men removing the stones for building materials ceased excavating on finding human bones.

Name Book 1880.

About the year 1887 the mound, now 12 to 13 feet high was excavated and revealed the remains at least 20 feet high of a broch. Two or three cists with bones of three bodies but only one skull were found on the top of the mound.

More than half the broch has been eroded by the sea but on the E side are indications of a fairly substantial wall.

(J Cursiter 1923)

The excavated hollow is now a rubbish pit partly overgrown with vegetation. The site has now an area of roughly 30 yards square.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 13 July 1929.

The grass covered remains of a broch, measuring 25.0 metres E to W by 18.0 metres N To S and 4.0 metres high. In the north side there has been severe mutilation and the excavated hollow is used as a rubbish tip, while in the SW slopes there are traces of walling.

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 16 September 1964.