Archaeology Notes

Event ID 644138

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/644138

HY21SE 32 2659 1385.

(HY 2659 1385) Knowe of Redland (NR) (Site of)

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

Excavations in 1866 revealed 'a circular wall built of large square stones, and of great thickness and strength, and about 50 ft. in diameter. The wall was found to have an entrance, from the east, about 2 1/2 ft. square and on a level with the ordinary surface.' Near the centre of the circle there was found a stone staircase leading downwards, spirally, to a depth of 20 ft. terminating in an apparently rock cut well which contained pure water. 'A great quantity of ashes and bones of animals were found in the interior of the circle.It is supposed to be the remains of a Brough or Picts House.'

This is the broch at Arion listed in Arch Scot Vol 5, which the Commmission could not locate (No.939) they described the Knowe of Redland (RCAHMS 1946, No. 942) as apparently natural.

Name Book 1880; J Anderson 1890; RCAHMS 1946.

The Knowe of Redland, situated in a pasture field is a vague grass-covered mound, 1.0m high so spread by cultivation as to be featureless. Mr. J. Aitken found a stone club here together with many large stones and cockle shells, and an oval holed stone, probably a hammer stone, which has since been lost.(Information from Mr J Aitken, Redland, Stromness Parish, Orkney.)

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 15 September 1964.

The stone club recorded above was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in October 1963 by Miss M Aitken of Redlands.

Formally acknowledged by National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1963, Acesssion no. 132.

(Undated) information in NMRS.