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Loch Of Stenness
Crannog (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Loch Of Stenness
Classification Crannog (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Orkney Crannog Survey
Canmore ID 273913
Site Number HY21NE 86
NGR HY 260 151
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/273913
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Sandwick
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
A preliminary study of Orkney crannogs was undertaken in 2004. The lochs of Stenness and Wasbister on Rousay were examined, where sites had been noted that had the appearance of having been artificially constructed. In the vicinity of the Loch of Stenness are numerous important archaeological sites including the Stenness standing stones, the Ring of Brodgar and a number of cairns. The sites to be examined were at the end of the loch furthest from these remains.
Loch of Stenness (Sandwick parish)
HY 260 151 Site 1. Small island in shallow water, 60m from the shore. The part of the site above the water is oval and has the remains of a wall along the long axis. The site was examined
above and below water but there was substantial plant growth on the top that obscured the surface to a significant extent. In the water immediately around the island the stones covering it were obvious for the first few metres, but the loch bed further out was substantially covered with fine algae, water weeds and small clumps of seaweed.
A sondage was cut into the stones, 6.4m out from the edge of the site on the S side. About 25cm down, three sherds of pottery were discovered and a small piece of bone. Two of the sherds are rims and the other piece joins with one of them. There is a burnt residue on the outside of the two rim sherds, and on all of them the surface features show little erosion. The sherds were in a layer of stones, brown earthy silt and the remains of weed roots. There is a clear stone slab causeway leading to the shore. At certain states of the tides the causeway is submerged, but it is clearly visible at all times.
Along the edge of the shoreline adjacent to the site there are stones set on edge, overlain by a substantial depth of topsoil. It is possible that these stones were a revetment to protect the peninsula on the shore, known as The Ness, from erosion in the past. There is also an alignment of bedrock at the end of The Ness that appears to have been quarried in the past, and one slab is still out of place, raised on a smaller stone that seems to have been placed under it to act as a fulcrum to lever the slab out. On The Ness is reputedly the remains of a chapel, seen now as a mound covered with earth and grass. Nearby in the water, on the opposite side of The Ness from the planned site, is a boat noost and a small enclosure made of slabs, of unknown purpose.
N Dixon and B Forbes 2004
Environmental Sampling (2006)
HY 258 149 and ND 475 966 This is a project looking at former relative sea level change and prehistoric settlement around Orkney. Since 2006 a programme of coring has taken place and two radiocarbon dates have been obtained which start to give a more precise idea of the period at which the sea reached its present level around the archipelago. This is associated with gradual changes in diatom (microfossil) assemblages which reflect the changing salinity. In both cases gyttja (organic sediment) has been dated.
Echna Loch – 3950±40 BP (Beta 242126) 2340–2570 cal BC – relates to a change to freshwater conditions from
marine with the closure of the marine embayment after the emplacement of the barrier (a storm beach) along which the present road runs.
Voy, Stenness – 3090±40 BP (Beta 242127) 1440–1270 cal BC – Voy lies at the inland extremity of the Loch of Stenness and the date relates to a change to marine and brackish conditions from freshwater/lagoonal.
These single dates give an initial idea of the age range when sea level reached present levels around mainland Orkney. The project now plans a more intensive programme of dating at these and other sites in order to refine interpretation. The time lag between Voy and Echnaloch is likely to be due to their different geographical positions. Echna loch lies at the head of a former inlet of the sea, now truncated by the storm beach, while Voy occupies a sheltered location behind a shallow rock lip which may have allowed freshwater conditions to prevail for longer at the NW end of the loch.
Archaeologically the dates are important because they indicate just how much the landscape of Orkney has changed since the world heritage sites comprising the heart of Neolithic Orkney were built c5000 years ago. Environmental reconstruction from coring suggests that rather than being connected to the sea the Loch of Stenness may have consisted of a lake with reed beds at the time when the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness were first built. While the sites were in use the ingress of sea into the Loch of Stenness as it
reached the level of the rock lip at the Brig o’ Waithe must have been a notable transformation. The subsequent flooding of the Stenness basin took place over the later life of the monuments making this an area of dynamic environmental change which must have impacted on the lives of those living in and using the area. Around Orkney relative sea levels would have been lower for much of the Neolithic, raising the possibility of submerged Neolithic sites and landscapes in the shallow seas between the islands. The investigation of potential submerged archaeology is another aspect of the current project.
Further coring has taken place in the deeper Seatter embayment (nearer to the Brig o’ Waithe) to refine the history of the Loch of Stenness, and in the Loch of Harray. Results will be presented in future editions.
Archive: RCAHMS, Orkney SMR, and ADS (intended)
Funder: Historic Scotland, The Crown Estate and Orkney Islands
C R Wickham-Jones, S Dawson and A Dawson (University of Aberdeen / University of Dundee), 2008
