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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 645039
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645039
HY44NW 11 4250 4948.
(HY 4250 4947) Knowe of Queen o' Howe (NR)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).
An obviously artificial mound which lies almost due north-south with a height of at least 7' and an overall diameter of from 60' to 65'. It is turf-covered, but largely composed of stones, often of considerable size. On the top near the north end there is a slight circular hollow formerly used for burning kelp.
The mound has obviously been much disturbed, the west side in particular being extensively damaged. On the NW a number of loose boulders are scattered round what may have been the original margin.
ONB. suggests the name may come from a vessel named 'Queen o'How'.
(See also G Petrie notebooks No. 9, 132-3).
Name Book 1879; RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
Knowe of Queen o'Howe, a turf-covered mound measuring c 22.0m in diameter and c 2.2m in height, showing a content of large stones in a hollow in the top. To the N of the mound the sea has eroded the shore and exposed traces of drystone structures and middens of shells and animal bones for a distance of 85.0m. It is probable that this is a broch with out-buildings, but there is no conclusive evidence.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (RL) 26 June 1970.
Two sherds of early Iron Age pottery, one basal and one body, found in a midden of the main mound, were deposited in Tankerness House Museum (THM 1990.103).
D Lynn and B Bell 1990.
