Archaeology Notes

Event ID 645287

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645287

HY32NE 18 3874 2652.

(HY 3874 2652) Reeky Knowes (NR)

OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).

Four mounds, varying in diameter from 12 ft to 43 ft and in height from '.. a few inches..' to 3 ft 6 ins. In recent times they have been used for signal fires to summon a boat, hence the name.

RCAHMS 1946.

Reeky Knowes, six mounds of earth with an admixture of small stones, are grouped at HY 3876 2652, close to the cliff edge at the base of a gentle east slope. The four mounds described by the Commission are unchanged, except that one ('A'- HY 3872 2654) has been mutilated by ploughing on its west side.

The other two ('E' - HY 3872 2651 and 'F' - HY 3873 2650), 7.0 m. and 9.0 m. in diameter respectively, have had the whole of their centres removed, leaving a low circular bank, 0.1 to 0.2 m. high.

These mounds are generally bowl-shaped and roughly circular and may therefore be barrows, although no finds have been reported.

Their name, and their use as signal stances, are still known locally.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 9 June 1967.