Sanday, Hermisgarth
Chambered Tomb (Neolithic)
Site Name Sanday, Hermisgarth
Classification Chambered Tomb (Neolithic)
Canmore ID 3506
Site Number HY64SE 15
NGR HY 66415 43124
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3506
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Cross And Burness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY64SE 15 6641 4313.
(Area: HY 664 430) A mound containing a chambered structure, accidently revealed by a farm-machine breaking through the roof many years before 1928, lies 200 yards NW of Hermisgarth farm-house.
As far as could be learned in 1928 it consisted of a single chamber, but the farmer reported that in the course of cultivation he came across what appeared to be passages radiating from the mound towards north and south. The opening was blocked by a former owner who had heaped earth over the covering slab to permit the mounds being cultivated.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
The site of this structure occurs at HY 6641 4313 on a low eminence. There is now no trace of it but the farmer at Hermisgarth has ploughed up a quantity of stones and shells here.
Visited by OS (NKB) 6 July 1970.
'The Orkney Herald' in 1880 reported that, at Hermisgarth, Sanday, an underground chamber was excavated and was to be removed. It is not clear if it was associated with the chambered structure mentioned above.
M Howe 2006
Note (1980)
Hermisgarth Farm, Sanday HY 6641 4313 HY64SE 15
Only a few stones and shells in the plough-soil indicate the site of a chamber revealed long ago when a farm machine broke through the roof.
RCAHMS 1980
(RCAHMS 1946, ii, p. 44, No. 184; OR 322)
