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Upper Groundwater
Barrow(S) (Prehistoric), Cist(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Upper Groundwater
Classification Barrow(S) (Prehistoric), Cist(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 1951
Site Number HY30NE 5
NGR HY 3750 0873
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1951
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Orphir
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY30NE 5 3750 0873.
(Group centred: HY 3750 0873) Tumuli (NR)
OS 6"map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1903).
These six mounds vary in diameter from about 20ft to 31ft : five vary in height from 2ft to 3 1/2ft, the sixth is a "mere foundation".
To the SE of this group is another mound, not marked on the OS map. At one time it was probably 45ft in diameter and some 5ft in height. In August 1928 it was a rabbit warren, considerably broken up by the burrows, and mutilated on the N side by excavation. It is covered by light-coloured green turf, which points to its being artificial.
RCAHMS 1946.
The remains of seven small grass-covered tumuli, situated on a flat ledge of pasture-land, vary in diameter from 6.0 to 10.7m and in height from 0.2 to 1.0m. Two of them have central depressions in their tops.
No finds have been reported from any of them, and no mound corresponding to that identified by the Commission to the SE of the group was found.
Resurveyed at 1/2500
Visited by OS(RL) 1 May 1966.
Field Visit (1 May 1966)
The remains of seven small grass-covered tumuli, situated on a flat ledge of pasture-land, vary in diameter from 6.0 to 10.7m and in height from 0.2 to 1.0m. Two of them have central depressions in their tops.
No finds have been reported from any of them, and no mound corresponding to that identified by the Commission to the SE of the group was found.
Resurveyed at 1/2500
Visited by OS(RL) 1 May 1966.
Field Visit (18 September 1993)
At the time of visit, only one mound was able to be recorded.
Measuring 6.0m in diameter and 0.65m in height. Situated on a low rise, it is visible for 200m to the W and probably for 500m to the S and SE.
Information from the Orkney Barrows Project (JD), 1993
Field Visit (10 May 2013)
A scatter of up to six grass-grown barrows are visible in two pasture fields about 170m NNW of the ruins of Appiehouse farmstead.
At the NW end of the group there are two barrows close together, the larger (1 - HY 37479 08796) measuring about 7m in diameter and 0.4m in height. Immediately to its E is the second (2) which measures 5m in diameter and 0.4m in height. The very faint traces of the third barrow (3 – HY 37487 08761), measuring about 10m in diameter and only 0.1m in height, are visible some 26m to the ESE, and a further 20m to the S there is a fourth (4 - HY 37491 08732). It measures 10m in diameter and 0.1m in height, with a marked depression in its centre. The fifth barrow (5 - HY 37551 08681), which is the best preserved, stands about 130m SE of (1). Roughly oval on plan, it measures 8.7m from N to S by 8.3m transversely and stands 0.5m in height. Just 2m to the NE, a swelling measuring 8m in diameter and 0.1m in height may be the remains another (6).
Six tumuli are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Orkney 1882, Sheet CVII.8; Name Book No.14, p.17), and it is likely that the four cists discovered in 1928-29 (Marwick 1929; RCAHMS 1946, No. 491) formed part of this group, previously recorded to the north (see HY30NE 14). Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are depicted on current OS mapping; two additional barrows depicted together on current OS mapping (centre HY 37507 08661) were not visible on the date of visit.
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 10 May 2013.
