Unst, Crussa Field, Rounds Of Tivla

HP61SW 5 6153 1084

See also HP61SW 6-8.

(HP 6153 1087) Stone Circles (NR)

OS 6"map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1900).

'The Rounds of Tivla', three cairns, consisting of sets of low, concentric, stony banks with a central mound.

In the best preserved the mound, of stones, now measures 13' in diameter as far as it appears above the turf. The three rings enclosing it measure respectively 30', 40' and 53' in diameter, the inner apparently an earthen bank, formed from a slight external quarry ditch, the other banks of stones lightly covered with earth produced from silimar ditches.

Hibbert (1882) describes one of the other cairns as having been enclosed by no more than two concentric circles, the diameter of the outermost being 22', and of the innermost 17'.

The outlandish aspect of these monuments is paralleled to some measure by the Haltadans (HU69SW 4), on neighbouring Fetlar," and also by an example which lies on Gray Coat hill in Teviotdale, Roxburghshire (NT40NE 24).

R W Feachem 1963; S Hibbert 1822; RCAHMS 1946, visited 1935.

Of these three cairns the main one is apparently a disc-type cairn consisting of a small low cairn surrounded by three banks with two intermediate ditches as described by RCAHMS.

The small cairn to the E is merely a level, semi-circular area of small stones, 5.5m across. A shallow depression on its NE arc may be the vestiges of a ditch but could be part of a sheep track.

The cairn to the SW is defined by a circular ditch 0.6m wide, 0.2m deep, 6.0m diameter, enclosing a slight stony mound. There is now no trace of it ever having been more extensive.

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (RL) 29 April 1969.

Scheduled with HP61SW 6-8 as Crussa Field, cairns.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 3 March 1993.