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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 646092
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/646092
HY62SE 9 6876 2142.
(HY 6876 2142) Pier (NR)
(HY 6879 2140) Harbour (NR)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).
A cancelled name for the 'pier' in the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) is Hooonisskerrie.
Name Book, 1879
Thought to have been a 'Pictish' pier and harbour associated with the neighbouring broch (HY62SE 1), these features are entirely natural, although the possibility exists that the shoreward end of the 'pier' may have been used as such.
An officer of the Geological Survey (Scotland) who examined the 'pier' came to the conclusion that it owed its existance to the tide race which runs round Lamb Head.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
In spite of the persistent tradition of artificial construction, this remarkable L-shaped boulder-spit off the S side of Lamb Ness is nowadays dismissed as a natural formation. While there is certainly no indication of built structures, and the natural origin must be accepted, the parallel with features in Sanday and Papa Westray require that the matter be given further thought; see introduction of RCAHMS 1984.
H Marwick 1927; RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1983.
