Eynhallow, Little Kyarl

HY22NE 29 3649 2940.

A structure, similar to that at Monkerness (HY32NE 28, q.v.) exists near Little Kyarl, 150 yds to the W. It does not appear to have been excavated.

Information from OS (AA) 9 June 1967

Source: RCAHMS 1946, visited 1929.

At HY 3649 2940 are the footings of a turf-coverd, drystone structure, 9.0m in diameter and 0.8m maximum height. It has been mutilated by erosion on the E side and cannot be classified.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 18 June 1967.

Little Kyarl HY 3649 2940 HY32NE 29

100m SE from Kyarl and on a less elevated cliff top, but otherwise in a generally similar situation, is the vague grass-grown foundation of a probable roundhouse some 9m across. 12m S of this is a shapeless, but apparently artificial, mound about 6m from side to side and 0.4m high.

RCAHMS 1982, visited August 1982

(RCAHMS 1946, ii, p. 234, No. 614; OR 771)

Some 100 m SE from Kyarl and on a less elevated cliff top, but otherwise in a generally similar situation to the settlement described on HY32NE 33, is the vague, grass-grown foundation of a probable roundhouse some

9m across: 12m S of this is a shapeless, but apparently artificial, mound about 6m from side to side and 0.4m high.

Information from OS (IF) 18 January 1983

Source: Visited by R G Lamb 1982, RCAHMS 1982.

HY 36041 29076 A desk-based assessment and walkover survey of the island of Eynhallow was undertaken in April 2007. In addition, geophysical survey was conducted at two sites. Approximately 3600m2 of gradiometry was conducted over a suspected burnt mound [HY32NE 29], which revealed several diagnostic crescent-shaped concentrations of highly fired material. Approximately 1ha of gradiometry was also undertaken around the monastic site [HY32NE 2]. Although partially obscured by an igneous dyke crossing the survey area, there was clear evidence of settlement corresponding to the mound on which the monastic site sits and some of the anomalies also hint at features predating the extant structures. Anomalies were also noted that confirmed the

existence of rig and furrow cultivation surrounding the site.

Report to be deposited with the Orkney SMR and RCAHMS.

Funder: Hunter Archaeological Trust, Viking Society for Northern Research, Orkney Archaeological Trust, Orkney College Geophysics Unit.

What has been interpreted recently as a burnt mound (Moore and Thomas 2008, 9, fig. 3) is situated in rough pasture 100m SE of the cairn at Kyarl. The remains, which have been truncated by coastal erosion on the ENE, consist of a grass-grown, circular bank up to 3.5m thick and 0.8m high, enclosing an area measuring about 13.4m in diameter overall. Two edge-set stones mark the inner edge of the bank on the N, while an amorphous mound is situated at the centre of the ring. A second, smaller tump (also interpreted as a burnt mound by Moore and Thomas) is situated 8m SW.

These remains have proved difficult to classify, having been interpreted as 'the footings of a drystone structure' (OS 1967), or the vestiges of a 'probable roundhouse' (RCAHMS 1982). It is also unclear whether they represent one of the circular structures noted in passing by Mooney (1923, 32), or the third ‘primitive building’ recorded by RCAHMS in 1929 near Little Kyarl (RCAHMS 1946, 234), as these sites are located with a lack of precision.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 13 August 2015

Moore and Thomas 2008, Site 12