Heglibister

HU35SE 2 3908 5157.

(HU 3907 5159) Tumulus (OE)

OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903).

A mound of burnt stones now broken up by excavation (about 1932), but originally about 30' in diameter and about 3' high. Fragments of pottery and some crude stone implements, found during the excavation, are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1932; RCAHMS 1946, visited 1930.

The mutilated remains of a burnt mound.

Visited by OS (NKB) 4 June 1968.

A group of burnt mounds vulnerable to coastal erosion in Shetland was surveyed in Spring 1996. Rescue excavation conducted at one of these sites, Tangwick, uncovered a burnt mound in close association with a specialized, non-domestic structure of Bronze Age date. It is concluded that Tangwick represents a distinct site type, previously little recognized, and it is proposed that such sites may have been used for feasting, possibly on a seasonal basis. More broadly, the results of survey work indicate that burnt mounds in Shetland are not a homogenous class of site and this variety has not been adequately accounted for within the prevailing models.

H Moore and G Wilson 1999