Knowes Of Quoyscottie
Barrow(S) (Bronze Age), Cist(S) (Bronze Age), Cremation(S) (Bronze Age), Cremation Cemetery (Bronze Age), Cremation Pit(S) (Bronze Age)
Site Name Knowes Of Quoyscottie
Classification Barrow(S) (Bronze Age), Cist(S) (Bronze Age), Cremation(S) (Bronze Age), Cremation Cemetery (Bronze Age), Cremation Pit(S) (Bronze Age)
Alternative Name(s) Sunnybrae, Mid Bigging
Canmore ID 2250
Site Number HY32SW 10
NGR HY 3017 2266
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2250
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Birsay And Harray
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY32SW 10 3017 2266.
(HY 3017 2266) Tumuli (NR)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).
These probable rubbish heaps, on the edge of an area of surface quarrying, lie east and west of each other, measuring 34ft by 28ft by 4ft high, and 30ft in diameter by 4ft 6ins in height respectively.
RCAHMS 1946.
Spoil heaps, as described.
Visited by OS (RL) 29 May 1967.
Field Visit (14 June 1929)
In spite of there being covered in grass, it is doubtful whether these two mounds, which stand on the N side of the hill road to Mid Bigging and about 150 yards W of the house, are anything other than rubbish heaps. They lie on either side of an area that has obviously been considerably excavated for road materials, and neither of them has the appearance of a prehistoric construction. They are not very regularly formed, the dimensions of the one on the E being 34 ft by 28 ft at the base by 4 ft high, while the other is about 30 ft in diameter and 4 ft 6 ins in height.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 14 June 1929
Excavation (1976 - 1977)
The Knowes of Quoyscottie exemplify a type of cemetery found in most parts of the Orkney Island group. Diffuse groups of numerous small, regularly shaped mounds.
The group lies in an unploughed field about 100m N from the farmhouse on the lower slopes of Greenay Hill. In all there are ten knowes, five lying close together in the corner of the field nearest the public road and adjacent to the house 'Sunnybrae'. In the garden of this house are two further knowes heavily overgrown. Three more are widely scattered one to the E and the others to the N of the main group.
This group is likely to have been associated with the Knowes of Cuean to the N. When excavation commenced a flat cremation cemetery was discovered which is thought to be contemporary.
M E Hedges (North of Scotland Archaeological Society), Proc Soc Antiq Soc 1976-7
Note (2020)
Quoyscottie
This burial site in Orkney Islands was a focus for funerary practices in the Bronze Age period, between 2450 BC and 801 BC.
Prehistoric Grave Goods project site ID: 60067
CANMORE ID: 2250
Total no. graves with grave goods: 13
Total no. people with grave goods: 13
Total no. grave goods: 15
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73849
Grave type: Cist
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Unknown Object; Materials used: Clay; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73850
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73851
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73852
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73854
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73855
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73856
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73857
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73858
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73859
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73861
Grave type: Pit
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Tool (Unknown/Unspecified); Materials used: Slate; Current museum location: Unknown
Grave good: Tool (Unknown/Unspecified); Materials used: Slate; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73862
Grave type: Cist
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 73863
Grave type: Cist
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Assemblage; Materials used: Pottery; Current museum location: Unknown
Grave good: Animal Bone (Other); Materials used: Bone/Antler/Horn/Ivory/Tooth (Animal) [Bone]; Current museum location: Unknown
Further details, the full project database and downloads of project publications can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5284/1052206
An accessible visualisation of the database can be found here: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/grave-goods/map/
Orkney Smr Note
Ten mounds in total, 5 lie adjacent to the house of Sunnybrae, 2 in the garden, one to the east and two to the N of the main group. Four of the mounds were investigated by Hedges in the 1970's. This showed that they were in fact part of a Bronze Age cemetery, including a flat cremation cemetery. See Hedges 1979 for excavation report.
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]
