South Ronaldsay, Flaws

ND48NE 9 4574 8545

See also ND48NE 14.

A cist is said to have been accidentally discovered many years ago on rising ground about 300 yds SW of the house on the croft at Flaws. This appears also to be the place known as the "Cairns o' the Bu" or the "Cairns o' Flaws", where stones, bones, shells etc have been ploughed up from time to time.

About 1902 an underground passage, 3ft 6in wide was discovered and partially investigated. Its walls were well-built, mostly with stones from the nearby quarry at Oback, and were 6 feet deep. Large boulders from the shore had been used to form the roof and the four of these uncovered, were fully 5ft long and about 2ft in width and thickness. "there were dividing stones to strengthen the structure as well as to indicate chambers beyond". The passage seemed to stop at a cross-wall, but the investigators came to the conclusion "that the end had not been reached". The only relics found were two pieces of human bone, a boar's tusk, a deer horn, a stone scraper and shells. The excavation was subsequently filled in.

A small long handled weaving comb, found with kitchen refuse while ploughing near"an earth-house" at Flaws, was presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1934 by John Brown, Flaws.

RCAHMS 1946.

At ND 4573 8546 are several holes dug by a mechanical excavator currently preparing the area for a new cemetery. In two of them is exposed, to a depth of c.2.0m, dry stone walling of indeterminate structures and quantities of "kitchen midden" refuse, mainly limpet shells. According to Mr J Brown it was about here that his father (now deceased) found an underground passage, probably the one noted by RCAHMS, and also the weaving comb. When the road to the South was under construction some years ago, much "midden" material wass dug up and Brown believes that other underground structures occur here and to the South of the road, as the ground sounds hollow in several places, when traffic crosses it.

He has no knowledge of the alleged cist find, unless it was the one found at "Deadman's Hillock" (see ND48NE 6). There is some confusion locally about the names "Cairns of Flaws" and "Cairns o' the Bu", but several old inhabitants agree that the former applies to this site, and the latter to a probably similar site to the N (ND48NE 14).

Visited by OS (IMT) 26 April 1973.