Archaeology Notes

Event ID 643972

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/643972

HY31SE 13 359 131.

There is a partly turf-covered mound, 20ft in diameter and 2 1/2ft in height, on the NE shoulder of the Hill of Heddle, nearly half a mile south of Finstown pier and 40 or 50yds east of the road. It seems to be mainly of earth although a few stones protrude through the surface. A cavity, 2ft 3 ins by 1ft 9 ins, in the top suggests that a cist may have been removed.

About 200yds further south are two other grass-grown mounds lying close together. They are 19 ft and 24ft in diameter and both about 3 ft high. They have evidently been opened, and on top of the more southerly one is a large cavity which may have contained a cist.

These three mounds are known as "Paerkeith".(A Wood 1927).

Fully 300ft higher up, and about a quarter-mile east of a modern cairn there is a low mound, about 25ft in diameter, whose outline is vague. It is hollowed in the centre, as if by excavation.

RCAHMS 1946. Visited August 1928.

Only three mounds were located on the NE slopes of the Hill of Heddle at about 200ft OD.

Mound A, at HY 3586 1329, and mound B, at HY 3596 1317, are as described by the Commission.

Mound C, at HY 3592 1314, measuring 10.0m in diameter and 1.0m in height, contains a large depression 5.8m long and 3.0m wide.

Mound D was not found, and has probably been destroyed by quarry operations.

These are almost certainly barrows: the name "Paerkeith" is not known locally.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS(NKB) 29 April 1966.

Tumuli 'invisible'

OS 9 November 1985.