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Shapinsay, The Hillock, Ness Of Ork
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Shapinsay, The Hillock, Ness Of Ork
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Canmore ID 3134
Site Number HY52SW 2
NGR HY 5356 2238
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3134
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Shapinsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY52SW 2 5356 2238.
(HY 5356 2238) The Hillock (NR)
OS 6"map, Orkney, 2nd ed.,(1900).
Close to the beach at the extreme N end of the island an extensive mound of blown sand, overgrown with turf, covers the remains of a broch, one-third of which has been swept away by the sea. Two tentative explorations have proved that the wall was some 12ft thick and the overall diameter was c.58ft.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
"The Hillock" - an amorphous turf-covered mound covering the remains of a broch of which all that can be seen is 1.0m of what is probably the SW arc of the inner face. There are vague traces of walling extending to the S along the shore line.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS(AA) 2 October 1972
Immediately S of the termination of the public road at the NE extremity of Shapinsay, there is a grass-grown sandy mound which conceals a broch, now partly eroded by the sea. The only exposed features are a short arc of what is probably the inner wall-face and some other fragments of masonry in the shoreline.
RCAHMS 1946; 1987, visited July 1984
Publication Account (2002)
HY52 2 NESS OF ORK ('The Hillock')
HY/53562238
Possible broch on Shapinsay consisting of a turf-covered mound of sand apparently covering a building a third of which has been swept away by the sea. A short arc of the inner wall face may be visible [4] and there are suggestions that the wall was about 3.66 m (12 ft.) thick; the overall diameter was estimated at c. 17.7 m. Traces of earlier explorations were noted, one of which had uncovered cists and graves to the north of the broch [3].
Sources: 1. OS card HY 52 SW 2: 2. RCAHMS 1946, 2, 275, no. 777: 3. Hedges et al. 1987, 121-22: 4. Lamb 1987, 11.
E W MacKie 2002
