Archaeology Notes

Event ID 646279

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/646279

HY53NW 1 5274 3797

HY 5274 3797 ) Brough (NR) (Site of)

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

An Orkney-Cromarty-type short horned cairn with a stalled chamber. It has been greatly reduced and disturbed and is now turf-covered but with a finer shorter growth than the surrounding area, which shows up the horns and indicates the area of cairn material, although the actual edge of the mound is indefinite. The body of the cairn has been circular with a diameter of about 46' and there have probably been four horns, pointing NW, NE, SW, SE of which three are still traceable.

The horn to the NE is most definite and rises c6" above ground level. It appears to be about 6' wide, 17' long, square-ended and curving slightly towards the east.

The horns to the SE and SW are now mere stumps about 7' and 5' long but perfectly evident. The NW horn cannot now be seen but there are three slabs set in line running from the body of the cairn towards the NW and set at a lower level than the stones of the chamber, presumably part of some secondary structure.

The body of the cairn stands up to 4' high, but it has been howked in the centre where the divisional stones of the stalled chamber, at least 15' long and running ENE-WSW, are exposed.

The remains of the entrance passage are no longer to be seen, but what appeared to be part of it was noted in 1928.

At its inner end lay a kitchen midden deposit as well as a large quantity of burnt material and animal bones, and several pottery fragments, some of them decorated, which are now lost.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928; A S Henshall 1963.

A short, horned chambered cairn generally as described and planned by Henshall. In the NW arc is a slightly curving trench which is presumably what RCAHMS refer to as the entrance passage, but it is more likely an excavation trench.

Surveyed at 1/2500

Visited by OS (RL) 28 June 1970.

In 1983 the SE 'horn' could not be traced, and in view of the known interference with the cairn, some caution is felt in interpreting the other two as horns of a horned cairn. The SW 'horn' projects only 1.5m from the cairn edge and might be explained as dump from the chamber exploration The bank projecting from the NE for about 5m, is possibly part of an old enclosure (not otherwise visible) associated with the occupation indicated by the row of three slabs on the NW side of the cairn and the midden recorded at their SE end. These slabs flank the SW side of a hollow running into the centre of the cairn, a feature which the RCAM misleadingly suggests may have been the entrance passage into the chamber. The hollow was probably made when the chamber was explored by islanders many years before 1928. (Confirmed by A S Henshall).

Visited by OS (JLD) 1983.

By the shore at the N end of Faray is an Orkney-Cromarty horned cairn with a stalled chamber. Corrie in 1928 sketched it and spoke to one of the islanders who had dug into its centre many years ago. Three of the four horns are still traceable, and the chamber, aligned ENE-WSW, was at least 4.5m long. A presumed entrance-passage had contained a kitchen-midden deposit with burnt material, animal bones, and pottery, suggesting a secondary use.

D Fraser 1982; RCAHMS 1984 (visited May 1981).