The Brough, Covenanters' Graves
Covenanters Grave(S) (17th Century)
Site Name The Brough, Covenanters' Graves
Classification Covenanters Grave(S) (17th Century)
Canmore ID 3106
Site Number HY51SW 3
NGR HY 5446 1005
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3106
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish St Andrews And Deerness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY51SW 3 5446 1005.
(HY 5443 1005) Graves (NR)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed.,(1903).
'Applies to a green plot of ground, with stones standing on end ..... When the Covenanters were prosecuted in Scotland in 1679 a number of them were banished to the Colonies. Tradition of the country has it to be, that one of the transport ships took shelter in a storm or was driven in to "Deer Sound", but slipped her anchors, and became a total wreck on the W. side of Deerness, and out of 250 convicts only 50 escaped drowning, but they also soon succumbed to the hardships they underwent, and were buried with their comrades on the west coast of Deerness (See HY50NE 1) But it (is) supposed that some of the bodies floated with the tide to the west side of Deer Sound and were buried in the above mentioned spot.' A pencil note states that the graves of the Covenanters are immediately to the west of the Ancient building on the promotory called 'The Brough'.
Name Book 1880.
At HY 5446 1005 the tops of five stones just protrude above the surface. They seem to be completely unworked and vary from 0.3m to 0.6m in length.
Surveyed at 1:2500
Visited by OS (GHP) 14 April 1964.
Lamb erroneously records this site as 'a small promontory fort', a statement which applies strictly to HY51SW 4.
R Lamb 1979.
Slab-structures known as 'Covenanter's Graves' (HY51SW 3), and so noted in 1880, lie on the steep coastal slope E of Cott of Ness, beside the narrow isthmus leading to the cliff-promontory fort called the Brough. They appear to be the remains of prehistoric buildings associated with the fort that occupies the promontory.
RCAHMS 1987, visited April 1979
Orkney Smr Note
'Applies to a green plot of ground, with stones standing on end ..... When the Covenanters were prosecuted in Scotland in 1679 a number of them were banished to the Colonies. Tradition of the country has it to be, that one of the transport ships took shelter in a storm or was driven in to "Deer Sound", but slipped her anchors, and became a total wreck on the W. side of Deerness, and out of 250 convicts only 50 escaped drowning, but they also soon succumbed to the hardships they underwent, and were buried with their comrades on the west coast of Deerness (See HY50NE 1) But it (is) supposed that some of the bodies floated with the tide to the west side of Deer Sound and were buried in the above mentioned spot.' A pencil note states that the graves of the Covenanters are immediately to the west of the Ancient building on the promotory called 'The Brough'.
Name Book 1880.
At HY 5446 1005 the tops of five stones just protrude above the surface. They seem to be completely unworked and vary from 0.3m to 0.6m in length.
Surveyed at 1:2500
Visited by OS (GHP) 14 April 1964.
Lamb erroneously records this site as 'a small promontory fort', a statement which applies strictly to HY51SW 4.
R Lamb 1979.
Applies to a small promontory.... On the summit of this point there has evidently been an ancient building as they (sic) are still some stones traceable, but beyond mere conseption (sic) no information can be procured."
(A pencil note states that the graves of the Covenanters (HY51SW 3) are immediately to the west of this object - meaning the building not the promontory; the building is therefore the eastern circle which measures 12.5m diameter on 25" of 1881).
Name Book 1880.
A small promontory fort.
R Lamb 1979
Information from Orkney SMR
