portable art from ‘Henge’, Grimeston Road (Harray) showing dimple near base. Whins Wifie is 45mm high with body 32mm wide and 30mm to neck which varies 21-27mm wide, dimples 14mm across
Image credit: Andrew Appleby (done by wideford)
Sites in West Mainland
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Whins Wifie showing other clear dimple
Image credit: Andrew Appleby (done by wideford)
Whins Wifie with possible strike failure for another dimple
Image credit: Andrew Appleby (done by wideford)
Articles
The 200kg quernstone was uncovered by Chris Gee near Saverock, St Ola, earlier this month.
More info :
news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/neolithic-grind-stone-older-than-skara-brae-ploughed-up?noq
A well-preserved skeleton which could be more than 4,000 years old has been found by a farmer close to Skara Brae on Orkney.
More info :
Archaeologists have discovered a Neolithic settlement 'on par' with the world famous Skara Brae
A 5,000-year-old settlement has been discovered in the Bay of Skaill, Orkney
It could rival the world famous Skara Brae and give new insights into ancient life
It was found after coastal erosion unearthed animal bones and a carved stone
The site is already under serious risk from climate change and rising sea levels
More info :
Found during work at the Finstown sub-station “A team from ORCA Archaeology, carrying out exploratory excavations at the proposed site of an electrical substation development in Orkney, has unearthed nine, half-metre tall stone-carved objects.” orkney.com/news/finstown-finds plenty of lovely images shown
A geophysics image produced for an investigation at Redland in the parish of Firth of a site occupied ~3300-2000BCE clearly shows a boundary around round houses, and this wall/ditch has been compared by those concerned with the Great Wall at the Ness of Brodgar in the parish of Stenness.
orkneyarchaeologysociety.org.uk/index.php/features/redlands-investigtion
“Orkney Today” and “The Orcadian” of June 4th 2009 report the discovery of a potential tomb at Heathfield, beehive shaped and built straight into the bedrock. There is a lintelled space opposite the corbelled cell. Way back “The Orcadian” of March 1st 1864 reports that drainage works on a new Wideford Hill farm revealed a large coverstone in the cut with cells beneath. A roughly 2½’ long 2’ wide central passage, blocked with stones at the northern end, ran NNW/SSE The southern end widened out, opening into two chambers in opposite directions, the southern one with a floor 4” above both the northern one and the passage. Edge-set slabs form the sides and ends of the northern chamber, which measures 4” by 2½” and some 2’2” high and has a reduced entrance some 2½’ across . Except for one edge-set slab at the back the southern chamber is of walling, and it measures 3½” by 2’10” by 2’ and the passage enters directly into it. George Petrie took measurements and made a plan of it. As with the present site nothing marked the site on the surface.
If, as seems likely, this is the same site then there is less potential for new finds here.
Caroline Wickham-Jones differs “as this is away from the farm and not related to any previous drainage” and asks “whether there is more than one of these in the vicinity”
BROUGH OF BIRSAY SAFE CROSSING
Radio Orkney has discontinued their early morning tide times for tourists to reach the Brough of Birsay. Their system took three-and-a-half hours off the Kirkwall low tide and then allowed five hours for safe crossing. Ocassionally this proved conservative but on very rare occasions folk still got stuck. The reports will be resumed when/if a more reliable method is found.
On the Ness of Brodgar website, in the first of Sigurd Towrie’s article on long cairns, one such is suggested as possiby being one on Outer Holm. There is a long low hillock next to the circular remains of a mill mound, but a look on Bing Satellite holds out little hope, all I see is a few very linear features on the ‘site’ – pity as I often photograph the place.