Archaeology Notes

Event ID 645491

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645491

HY44SW 2 4414 4181

(HY 4414 4181) Knowe of Skea (NAT)

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

A large, grass-grown cairn lies at the extreme end of Berst Ness. It has an overall diameter of about 85 ft., a height of about 9ft. and has been slightly disturbed on top.

In the immediate neighbourhood, large stones protrude through the turf but they suggest no definite plan.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.

An amorphous, roughly circular, turf-covered mound covering an area about 26.0m in diameter, still known locally as 'Knowe of Skea'. Traces of indeterminate dry-stone structures and midden material protrude from the S. side where it has been eroded by the sea. Not a cairn but an occupation site of uncertain character.

Visited by OS (RL) 1 July 1970.

Two fragments of Iron Age pottery were recovered from a mixture of burnt stone, animal bone and limpet shell in one of a series of exposures on the southern tip of the mound. No structural features were observed.

The pottery is in Tankerness House Museum (Accession no THM 1984.212).

D S Lynn and B Bell 1984.

Five pottery sherds and a whetstone fragment were found in exposures on the S face of the mound. The form of the sherds suggests an Early Iron Age origin. The pot and the remaining size of the severely eroded mound suggest a possible broch site. The finds were deposited in Tankerness House Museum (THM 1990.101 - potsherds and THM 1990.102 - whetstone).

D Lynn and B Bell 1990.

HY 4414 4181 Rescue excavations were carried out on an eroding mound known as the Knowe of Skea (NMRS HY44SW 2) and on several smaller mounds in the near vicinity. The Knowe of Skea is situated at the S extremity of Berst Ness and has previously been interpreted both as a cairn and as a settlement mound. Assessment excavation revealed it to be a chambered cairn. The mound is over 20m in diameter; at its centre is a large oval chamber and there are indications of up to four smaller surrounding cells. The central chamber is unusually large, measuring some 7m by almost 4.5m. It appears to have been deliberately filled in with deposits containing large amounts of fish bone, shell and animal bone; a few sherds of pottery and some worked bone objects have also been found. The surface of the mound was found to be littered with fragments of bone. At least two later Bronze Age burials were inserted into the exterior of the cairn. In one case, the crouched skeleton of a young adult was found in a shallow pit cut into the surface of the cairn. Towards the periphery of the cairn, a stone-lined cist was found set into the cairn. Work has also taken place on a series of five smaller structures on Berst Ness. All have been identified as burial monuments.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

H Moore and G Wilson 2000

Middle Iron Age burials HY 440 420 A season of excavation was carried out at the Knowe of Skea (HY44SW 2) during autumn 2004. Further human burials, both adults and neonates, were recovered, and two curvilinear buildings were investigated.

Sponsors: HS A, Orkney Islands Council.

HY 4416 4181 A sixth season of excavation was carried out by EASE in 2006. The aim of work carried out during 2006 was to complete the excavation of Structures C and H. The evidience recovered during earlier seasons indicated that the external complex, of which buildings C and H formed a part, was the focus for sustained and intensive activities, including metalworking and human burial. The work was undertaken as a rescue programme, designed to rapidly record a complex site which is actively degrading and ultimately will be destroyed by coastal erosion.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland, Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Archaeological Trust.

Hazel Moore and Graeme Wilson, 2007.

H Moore and G Wilson 2005.