Archaeology Notes

Event ID 646056

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/646056

HY53NE 18 5786 3861

See also HY53NE 19.

Orkney SMR Reference: OR 977, OR 978

(HY 5786 3861) An Orkney-Cromarty-type long cairn whose body encloses a contemporary stalled chamber aligned on the axis of the cairn and entered from the east end, and also an earlier (A S Henshall 1963) chamber or house (R W Feachem 1963), surrounded by an inner core of cairn material, whose passage had been carefully blocked.

The cairn, excavated by Calder in 1936, measures 66' by 27' and there is a drop of 6' along the main axis. It is faced by a well-built wall which survives to a height of 2', and is battered in places and vertical in others, which may be due to thrust. The floor of the east chamber bore a layer of blown sand, evidently accumulated after the roof had been removed, over which lay Iron Age occupation debris. There was no sand in the west chamber but some occupation debris occurred in the peat filling. Finds from the site are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), Stromness Museum and Carrick House, Eday.

The dilapidated remains of an old wall overlay the site before excavation and ran NE of the site to HY53NE 19. (OS 6"map, Orkney, 1st ed.,[1882]).

C S T Calder 1937; additional note V G Childe 1946; RCAHMS 1946; A S Henshall 1963.

As described and planned by Henshall.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (AA) 23 July 1970.

Situated on the SW slopes of the island, this cairn was excavated by Calder in 1936. Two chambers were revealed, the earlier being a small example of Bookan type with two compartments and an entrance-passage; the later chamber is stalled, with four compartments and the enclosing cairn overlies one of the corners of the earlier tomb. Both chambers were subsequently covered by an oblong cairn. Separated from the original deposits in both chambers by layers of blown sand and peat was evidence of Iron Age occupation. All of this had been overlain by a dyke (HY53NE 18). Although overgrown, the main elements of the structure are still apparent.

A C Renfrew 1979; RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1983.

Overrunning both the chambered tomb (HY53NE 18) and the roundhouse (HY53NE 19) was a length of massively constructed dyke. Above the older structures it was of course removed during excavation, but between the two it remains as a peat-covered ridge some 2m wide.

RCAHMS 1946; RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1983.