Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Pricing Change

New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered. 

 

Westray, Couter's Hill

Mound (Prehistoric)(Possible)

Site Name Westray, Couter's Hill

Classification Mound (Prehistoric)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) Skethaquoy

Canmore ID 2765

Site Number HY44NW 10

NGR HY 421 486

NGR Description HY c. 421 486

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2765

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Bluesky International Limited 2025. Public Sector Viewing Terms

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Westray
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Archaeology Notes

HY44NW 10 c. 421 486.

A mound which has every appearance of being artificial lies about 200 yds south of Skethaquoy (HY 4213 4880), on a plateau which crowns a steep rise at a point where the road skirts the base of Couter's Hill (HY 417485) on the SE.

Its outline has been effaced by cultivation, but originally it seems to have been circular with a diameter of between 35' and 40' and a height of at least 3'.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.

No trace. The farmer at Iphs recalls his father telling him of the removal of a mainly earthen mound in the area centred HY 421 486. Nothing was found and he was uncertain of its exact position.

Visited by OS (RL) 27 June 1970.

Activities

Note (1983)

'S of Skethaquoy' HY 421 486 HY44NW 10

There is now no trace on the steep SE slope of Coulter's Hill of a mound over 30m in diameter and up to 1 m high; it appears to have been removed a generation ago.

RCAHMS 1983.

(RCAHMS 1946, ii, p. 352, No. 1041; OR 689).

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions