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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 653490
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/653490
ND16SE 12 1694 6477
(ND 1694 6477) Sysa (NR)
OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907).
This is a grass-covered mound, 200ft long, 165ft wide and with a maximum height of 30ft, which is said by the RCAHMS (1911) to be natural, but which has a local reputation of being artificial and to be associated with the supernatural, especially with one occurrence on the day of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
The original OS surveyor (ONB 1872) describes it as similar to the Bass of Inverurie (NJ72SE 13) and suggests that the name derives from 'sise' meaning 'doom' or 'judgement'. The appearance of the mound is said to have been altered by cultivation, and a spring is said to have existed in a hollow on the S face. The existence of the spring would tend to confirm that the mound is natural.
Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) 1872; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910; Information from OS revisor (W C) 5 May 1956
Sysa mound is undoubtedly natural.
Visited by OS (R D) 11 November 1965
(ND 1694 6477) Sysa (NAT)
OS 25" map, (1968)
Sysa: a mound in an area of old fields and enhanced by ploughing around it; in the W side is a small quarry hollow. As stated previously, it would appear to be natural.
Visited by OS (J M) 28 October 1981
Mound, 'Sysa'. Dimensions: 82 x 75m. grass-covered mound of subcircular appearance around 10m high. There is no evidence of any coursing or stonework. Slight depressions in the surface may indicate chambers. Orientation NE-SW.
R J Mercer, NMRS MS/828/19, 1995.
