Saevar Howe

HY22NW 5 2460 2700.

(HY 2460 2700) Saevar Howe (OE)

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

Saevar Howe or 'Saverough' is a large sandy hillock some 170 ft in diameter and 10 ft in height lying a few feet above high-water mark. It appears natural but excavations by Farrer between 1862 and 1867 (J Farrer 1867) revealed that some large building had stood here at an early date and that when earth and sand had covered it to a depth of 10 ft or more the site became a long-cist Christian cemetery.

The building, very ruinous, yielded finds typical of a broch culture but also a bone implement found elsewhere only at Skara Brae (HY21NW 12 ) and in a late pre-broch level at Jarlshof (HU30 NE). The mound also contained a well-built wall enclosing what appeared to be a flagged yard, the whole surrounded by an extensive and thick midden deposit of shells. A few feet from the building were found two small cists and a third which contained the Celtic bell, known as the Bell of Birsay (now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS]) suggested by Anderson (J Anderson 1869) to be the bell of the Celtic church (HY22NW 1), deliberately buried to save it from the Norsemen. Some years before 1863 a LBA spearhead was picked up on the top of the mound.

RCAHMS 1946; J Farrer 1865; J Coles 1962

Saevar Howe, a sandy hillock as described. There are no surface indications of a building or cists.

Visited by OS(RL) 19 May 1967

Limited rescue work which elucidated the sequence of the site was carried out in 1977 by John Hedges. The mound has three phases, first Pictish period buildings of which only fragments were uncovered, secondly Viking period buildings and thirdly a long cist cemetery.

C D Morris 1983.

'The Orcadian' reported the excavation of this site in 1866. The bell from the cist discovered in 1863 is mentioned in 'The Orkney Herald' and 'The Orcadian' in the later 19th century.