Stronsay, Grice Ness, Cutter's Tuo
Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Site Name Stronsay, Grice Ness, Cutter's Tuo
Classification Chambered Cairn (Neolithic)
Canmore ID 3297
Site Number HY62NE 2
NGR HY 6725 2847
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3297
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Stronsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY62NE 2 6725 2847.
(HY 6725 2847) Brough (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed.,(1900).
A cairn, with a diameter of 60' and now 3'6" in height, but it appears to have been a great deal larger. It serves as a fisherman's landmark and is locally known as the 'Cutter's Tooer'. (The Name Book assumes it was a broch).
Name Book 1879; RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
A turf-covered bell-type cairn which appears to be about 13.0m in diameter and 0.9m high and centrally placed on a circular platform c21.0m in diameter and 0.3m high. It is locally recalled that several years ago there was a short stretch of drystone walling exposed in the W arc of the cairn,possibly of a surrounding retaining wall. The summit of the cairn is surmounted by the remains of a modern structure, probably a marker cairn.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (AA) 19 July 1970.
Chambered Mound. The tops of 2 earthfast flagstones 2m apart near centre of cairn.
D Fraser 1980.
The remains of a chambered cairn apparently set on a platform (c/f ND49SW 4 - Hoxa Hill), and generally as described by OS surveyor(AA) except that the tips of 2 pairs of slabs can be seen projecting no more than 0.15m above the disturbed top of the ciarn. They are set transversely to the SSE-NNW axis and are 2.7m apart. A fifth stone towards the W side of the cairn does not appear to be part of the chamber. (Confirmed by A S Henshall).
Visited by OS (JLD) 13 May 1982.
Cutter's Tuo, on the low ness E of whitehall village, is a fine specimen of a bell-cairn. It comprises a circular platform, 21m in diameter and 0.3m high, from which rises a central knoll 13m in diameter and 0.9m high
D Fraser 1982; RCAHMS 1984; visited June 1979.
Orkney Smr Note (June 1979)
A cairn 3ft 6in high, 60ft diameter, apparently once much
larger than it is now. [R1]
The action of grazing cattle has exposed the tops of two
earthfast slabs, one 0.6m long, < 0.1m thick, aligned 070 deg. -
250 deg., the other at least 0.4m long, 0.1m thick, aligned
170 deg. - 350 deg. almost at right angles to the first. A
cavity 0.3m deep is exposed to the immediate NE of the second
stone. [R2], D Fraser, Univ of Glasgow, visit Summer 1980.
Bell-Cairn - a turf-covered bell-type cairn. 13m diameter,
0.9m high, centrally placed on a platform 21m diameter, 0.3m
high. Locally recalled that several years ago there was a short
stretch of drystone walling exposed in W arc of cairn, possibly a
surrounding retaining wall. Summit is surmounted by remains of
modern marker cairn. OS visit Jul 70.
Exactly as described by OS.
Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Jun 79.
Publication Account (1996)
This neat round mound is easy to spot because it is capped by a modern sea-mark cairn. It is about 13m in diameter and is surrounded by a low platform, making the whole monument about 21.5m across. In 1927 the mond, also known as Cutters Tuo, was recorded as conical and 2m high, which suggests that it is likely to be a bronze-age burial cairn, but there are the tops of several slabs protruding above the turf, and it is possible that these belong to a small chambered cairn rather than to bronze-age cists.
Near the end of the road, at the one place where the ground rises to 10m OD, there is a wooden pole with footholds for the coastguard to gain a slightly higher view of the east entrance into Papa Sound.
Stronsay's plentiful archaeology is barely understood, for there has been little scientific exploration, but the island was clearly attractive to settlement from early times. There is a long cairn, fully 70m in length, on Papa Stronsay (one end utilized in the last century by a windmill, the base of which is still visible, HY 668292), and a stalled cairn on Lamb Ness (see no. 54). A rare example of a wooden logboat was found at the edge of Lea Shun loch at the south end of the island in the 19th century, but it was unfortunately allowed to dry out and shrivel.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
