Egilsay, Onziebist
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Egilsay, Onziebist
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Alternative Name(s) Onziebust
Canmore ID 2621
Site Number HY42NE 4
NGR HY 47418 27807
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2621
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Rousay And Egilsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY42NE 4 4741 2780.
Situated at HY 4741 2780 on the edge of a rocky escarpment is a chambered cairn measuring 20.0m N-S by 17.0m and 1.8m maximum height. Towards the N end a straight stretch of drystone walling is exposed, 2.6m long running N-S. From it to the W a lintelled passage 0.3m wide and 1.0m long leads into a corbelled oval cell, visible through a hole in its roof and measuring 1.5m N-S by 1.0m transversely. The top of the mound has been extensively dug into and little that is intelligible survives of the remainder of the chamber, though the cell appears to be part of a Maes Howe-type chamber.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS(ISS) 14 October 1972.
(HY 4741 2780) Chambered Cairn (NR)
OS 1:10,000 1982.
Generally as described. Confirmed by A S Henshall as a probable Maes Howe type chamber.
Visited by OS(JLD) 18 May 1982.
Orkney Smr Note (August 1982)
Very prominent site on spur-end overlooking flat coastal plain. As described except in that the cairn material has spread down the slopes and its limits hard to define. Very heavily quarried all over, but if, as seems the most likely explanation, the cell is subsidiary to a main chamber represented by the straight length of wall, good deposits may well survive on the floors of cell and chamber.
Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Aug 82.
Field Visit (August 1982)
Hillocks of the Graand HY 4742 2780 HY42NE 4
Very prominently poised on the edge of a rocky spur overlooking the flat coastal plain at the Send of the island is a site discovered by the OS in 1972. The mound has been heavily quarried and its material has spread down the steep slopes, but it was about 21m N-S by 17m. Exposed in it is a short straight stretch of wall-face pierced by a lintelled passage 0.3m wide and 1.1m long leading to a diminutive corbelled cell 1.4m by 0. 9m. This is consistent with a chambered tomb of Maes Howe type; in spite of the quarrying it is likely that archaeological deposits survive in the cell and main chamber.
RCAHMS 1982, visited August 1982
(OR 797)
