John Bews says “from the mound at Howe the sun rises on the longest day, I think, directly over this stone. Moor Stone may have been quarried some distance south-east of Castle Bloody...” Howe Hill canmore.org.uk/site/3097/shapinsay-hillock-of-howe as distinct from the Hillock of Howe
wideford
NMRS record no..ND49SW 2
Traditionally a passage connects the Little Howe of Hoxa to the Howe of Hoxa, but Petrie found no traces.- Wainright’s avenue is declared to be one of several linear stone clearance heaps. When Petrie investigated (through partial excavation) the already disturbed mound he found a central structure within two curvilinear concentric walls having a passage approx.. 2’ high and 12-16” wide at the base increasing a little in width at the top. The wall combo was ~21’ wide either side of the entrance then decreased to 13’ wide, and enclosed an irregular central chamber of 20’D. Inside a gallery extended behind the wall. As well as a southern ‘doorway’ cut down to the bedrock there was another passage opposite connecting to the ‘inner court’. Both entrance passage and gallery passages were lintelled.
RCAHMS NMRS record no.HY20NE 5
Close to the shore on the north side of the Sower Road is a large unopened mound of earth and stones which the Name Book states locals called an old castle and appears on the 25” as a castle site. By 1928 it was known locally as the “Hillock of Hoose-ha” and a visit by the commission records “traces of a large indeterminate structure”. Nowadays thought to be a settlement mound, it is roughly rectangular – some 24m E/W by 19m – and about 2m high. No walling has been seen but stone is exposed in places around the periphery and cairn-like material shows in two “mutilations” at the centre.
“Countrywoman” visited this site in the 60s; partial collapse in 1964 brought out a building in the outer wall. In 1967, a wall-chamber was revealed and she noted a structure in the nearby shore under low banks. Strong walls had been exposed a year later. The site suffered serious gale damage in 1984.
The main feature is part of the broch tower’s NE wall arc standing 4’ high and having a scarcement with rubble-filled alcove thought to have been access to a stair/gallery. A later wall cuts across the wall arc at the east.
RCAHMS site no. HY 51NW 10 additionally mentions a ruinous naust up against the W side and, also at the W, outbuilding traces including an edge-slab in the shoreline. Then E of the broch there is rubble covering a well-paved floor set directly on the natural.
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.
described in the Orkney Name Book as mostly a raised earth and stone grass-covered mound [forming the northen end and ~25’D by 3’ high] at the no, the remains of a Danish fort/castle (as they thought) . It is an uneven patch of ground approx. 100x50 yards with many irregular stony mounds that a recent survey think represents a substantial structure having seaward an enclosed yard (they also found a smaller mound landward of the structure’s remains). RCAHMS described it as a 3m high N/S platform some 54x30m, and parallel to the coast, whose mostly level top rises slightly to the edges. To its seaward side bone pins were found in an area on the order of 50x10m that is enclosed by a curvilinear bank. The recent survey describes the structure as an irregular mound bounded by the yard (which goes all the way to the eroding coastline). The yard’s north and south sides are formed by irregular earthen banks coming from the proposed structure’s NW and SW corners.
At present it is proposed that this is a funerary or ritual site. In which case I think it could relate to the scant remains of a large disc barrow on the hillside above – the Howe of Tongue held a cist (canmore.org.uk/site/1492/hall-of-ireland)
RCAHMS record no. HY20NW 20 is a mound 10 to 12 feet high mostly thought to be either the outwork to a broch (some instead go for a blockhouse underneath ) or an earlier promontory fort, the only dating evdence being broch-style pottery (finds lost), It lies ESE/WNW with an interior of the order 90’ by 55’. The isthmus neck is blocked by a bank 10’ wide and the same in height, in which Raymond Lamb saw walling traces with erect slabs amongst the rubble as well as what is left of a much slighter outer bank and ditch. On the mound antiquarians thought there had been a substantial stone structure reduced to slight scattered remains that led them to deduce 12’ thick walls consistent with a broch. Some large stones stood in situ, more so at the cliff’s west side. The mound’s slopes abound in walling traces and earthfast stones. A shell midden yielded those fragments of the coarse ware called broch-type. RCAHMS couldn’t find the midden later, but given how cnfusing the site lies I would suggest that this is the midden later found on the south side of the clifftop behind the supposed blockhouse. Much of the promontory contains wall traces and earthfast stones.
NMRS record no HY50NE. An excavation, cut short by the death of the director in 1982 , revealed on the N side a regularly curving segment of ground-galleried broch-type wall 13’6” thick which he thought could be a structure of the hypothesised ‘semibroch’ type adduced along the west coast of the Scottish mainland and in the Western Isles. Others suggesrted it might be a ‘forework’ or ‘blockhouse’ fort. In 2002 Euan Mackie suggested from plans of 1984 and and 1987 observations that inserted into a ground-galleried broch had been “a proper wheelhouse of Shetland type (with built radial piers)” otherwise only found in Shetland at that time. As well as the wall and traces of domestic structures on the promontory itself there are almost a hectare of dark midden deposits on the W side. Though the promontory isn’t connected to the steep-sided Stack of Mustack/Moustag (HY50NE 28 HY59260743) it is likely it once was, with the suggestion that this was part of the Iron Age complex – two or three orthostats protrude from a low ~19mD mound at the far end.
Only the south side of RCAHMS record no. HY45SE 2, a grass-covered mound of gravel and small stones, survives due to erosion at the N and W part. It is 1.3m high and 12.5m E/W by 8m, thought not large enough for a broch so either a settlement or perhaps what’s left of a cairn. Not a burnt mound they believe, owing to the absence of burnt material.
NMRS record no. HY20SW 7 is 4m high 25m E/W along the coastline by 18m N/S, representing one half of the original broch as shown from the air. A well-built wall survives on the east side and further traces can be found in the SW slopes. The north side has a large hollow now used to dump rubbish. Men extracting stone for building ceased on discovering bones – in 1979 more were found in the dense tumble of the NW fringe after storm damage. And Cursiter around 1887 found cists inserted into the top of the mound itself.
An oval or sub-oval mound covered a stalled tomb entered from the south-eastern end. It resembled Midhowe except that the cairn sat on a substantial ‘scarcement’ surmounted by a foot high course of flags set at an angle thrn finally a horizontal course. It was the first such feature discovered in Orkney
NMRS record no, HY31NW 1. In 1946 the rectilinear mound is 40-45 yards square and 12 foot high but in 1960 it is described as ~45m N/W by 36m and 1.5m high which does not compute. I suspect some belong to the mound and others to the slight eminence it sits on. Most definitely well above head height from the road ! An irregular outcrop of stones from the turf is thought to hint at a substantial structure beneath.
The Knowe of Burrian , NMRS record no. HY31NW 2, was once 60’ in diameter and 17 high. A berm seperates south and west sides of broch remains 1.2m high on the flattened top of a steep natural hillock. On the east side are three courses of outer wall face and possible traces of the inner wall face, from which it is estimated that its external diameter is ~18.3m and internal 8.5m.
After several failed digs by other folk Robert Flett of Garth made a go of excavating it in 1936, when a trench found distinct layers of ‘hearth-materials’ – charcoal, pot-boilers, animal bones, etc – before almost at the other side a slight turn revealed an interior chamber floor. As well as the Pictish Symbol Stone he found some burnt wood, stone tools and ashes. Then came one of those myserious ‘wells’ . Of two excavations in the centre of the mound the more westerly is the now covered location of an underground chamber. From a vertical entrance approx. 2’6” square eleven steps led steeply down 12’ to a 10’x5’ flat-roofed figure-of-8 corbelled structure compared to the Gurness well then being dug, though the site was called an earth-house rather than a broch at the time.
Midhouse/Mithouse NMRS record no. HY32SW 17 at HY30802000, is a large grassy mound SW of Mithouse, 10~12’ high and 132’ by ~100’ orientated NNE/SSW with many large stones on its slopes. In 1935 a small excavation found passageways and massive walls – it is thought to have been a broch as a shallow 54’ D depression on top is surrounded by a low irregular bank.
SHETLAND SITES IN OLD ORKNEY NEWSPAPER REPORTS
Bressay
July 18th 1865 “The Orcadian” George Petrie and Dr Hunt excavate 65’D 10~11’ high bowl barrow. Near the centre 5-6’ below the apex were fond a “peculiar” stone tool (similar to one found at Sefster on same trip), potsherds and ox bone fragments. Tumulus made of burnt stones, having a circle of stones just inside the perimeter with the remains of an encircling circular wall a few feet inside that. On the wall’s inner face, roughly 15’ inside the north perimeter, a large edgeset freestone block was found facing the centre. This was held up by a wall either side and had a large perforation near its upper end. Not far from the mound, but unconnected, were found two inscribed stones, each with a different kind of runes. These were taken to Lerwick..
Brindister Voe HU25NE 6
July 18th 1865 “The Orcadian” Broch of Brindister at edge of steep cliff and defended by double earthworks landward. George Petrie and Dr Hamiltton saw doorway and traced galleris in the circular wall but didn’t examine inerior as choked with debris from broch tower.
Broch of Burraness HU58SW 1
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” described. In 1854 one of the best preserved broughs in Shetland but a lot taken for cottage building in Burraness.
The Brough HU48NW 3
31st 1865 “The Orcadian” llttle left of Brough of West Sandwick’s wall.
Brough of North Garth ~HY547005
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” brough below house, at beach’s N end, almost entirely gone.
Brough of Stoal HU58NW 1
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” at least 3 ditches cut off brough at stole/chair of Awick, very high banks.
Brough of West Yell
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” name mentioned.
Burgi Geo HP50NW 2
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” description of approach to brough on Burgar Goes, a site mentioned by Hibbert.
Burra Voe HU57NW 2
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” little left as most of Brough of Burnavoe stones taken to build house at Burnavoe by owner Mr Henderson, entrance to underground passages now blocked by stone.
Charlotte Street, Lerwick
February 12th 1886 “Orkney Herald” stone cist with remains, probably previously disturbed, found near surface in clearing site for Mr Ogalvy’s houses at bottom of Charlotte Street.
Clickhimin HU44SE 2
July 18th 1865 “The Orcadian” Broch of Clickimin [sic] in worse state than Mousa but wall restoration more in keeping with design.. April 11th 1888 “Orkney Herald” Stones removed from causeway by local butcher for building material.
Fillicomb Point HP50NW 3
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” some ditches of brough in heads of Toft remain but part of broch fallen into the sea.
Foula
June 27th 1883 “Orkney Herald” report from “Shetland News”; man on Foulis [sic] finds fresh-looking but headless female body, lying on an o.g.s. of stunted heath, after digging 6’ through solid peat.
Giant’s Grave, North Yell
July 29th 1871 “The Orcadian” close to St Niniian’s Kirk site (Papil Bay) is a N/S aligned low mound called giant’s grave and never built upon, though slight attempts to excavate seem to show natural sandstone only.
Gossabrough HU58SW 1
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” chambers visible in Brough of Gossaburgh ruins, graves reported nearby.
Graveland HU49NE 3
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” remains of buildings at Brough of Bergaard on small peninsula.
Greenbank HP50SW ?53
July 29th 1871 “The Orcadian” two stone fragments with worn lettering found at Clinsara Reggs on the meik of Papal by Margaret Craigie of Millby Cottage servant, near the St Ninian’s Kirk site.
Head of Brough HU48SW 2
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” description of Brough of Brough.
Holm of Coppister HU47NE 1
October 31st 1865 “The Orcadian” Brough of Cuppister mentioned (name only).
Levenwick HU412NW 3
August 21st 1869 “The Orcadian” recorded by Dryden.Broch excavated down to the foundations within the last fortnight by Gilbert Goudie and described. Only finds part of a handmill and bone fragments.
Loch of Huxter HU56SE 1
June 17th 1879 “Orkney Herald” described in notice read to Society of Antiquaries of Scotland..
Mailand (Unst) HP60SW
June 10th 1876 “The Orcadian” D Edmonton’s men digging May 31st on area long dug for peats discover 4 cast metal items together mouth down in the peat, a large basin and 3 fire-pots different sizes.
Mousa HU42SE 1
July 18th 1865 “The Orcadian” description of Mousa-Borg, where restorations have been made to the walltop and the doorway but those to the latter has greatly changed the appearance.
Muckle Heog East HP61SW 12
September 27th 1864 “The Orcadian” burnt human bones from crouched people found in cist 18” below ground level in digging hole for flagstaff, 2 skulls sent by Mr Edmonton to Mr Roberts at Somerset House.
Papil Bay HP50SW 4
July 29th 1871 “The Orcadian” St Ninian’s Kirk site at the Kinwail ‘gard of Weeping’ close to mound called giant’s grave.
Sefster HU35SW 14
July 18th 1865 “The Orcadian” celts and stone knives found by minister Bryden several years ago in underground passage at Safsetter/Safester. Passage re-opened and many more tools found, including one similar to that already found in a Bressay mound. Potsherds and stone vessels also found.
St Ninian’s Church HU32SE 4 ?
August 26th 1885 “Orkney Herald” letter from the “Scotsman” describing situation of unenclosed disused St Ninian/Ringan’s graveyard: ~6 miles from Fitful Head on E side of tidal outlet on W side of mainland’s southern part. Soil is loose light sand to a great depth.
Trebister HU43NW 13?
March 28th 1883 “Orkney Herald” preparations on Saturday for a graveyard at a grass-covered mound belonging to Rev Mr Walker bring to light a ‘Pictish castle’, 40’ of a circular section 4’ high surviving from what is likely to have been a ~140’ outer wall of the building. Stone dyke encloses mound. Large quanities of dark red peaty ash in several places and a man’s jawbone found. Other discoveries were a few stone celts, several 12x8” ovoid polished stones (some with oval cavities) and four pottery varieties – 2 dark red soft earthenware sherds, a hard brick red sherd, and a vrery hard modern looking highly polished grayish sherd with light green spots.
Uyea, Shetland HU69NW 7
March 18th 1885 “Orkney Herald” article includes extra to P.S.A.S record of meeting, being mention of 3 steatite urns found in tumulus and 4 polished oval porphyrite knives found by Mr J Leisk, all exhibited.
MAINLAND SITES IN OLD ORKNEY NEWSPAPER REPORTS
Ackergill Links ND35NW 9
November 1st 1864 “The Orcadian” excavation of cists by Mr Laing April 24th 1866 “The Orcadian” Petrie says the mound is natural September 18th 1866 “The Orcadian” Laing gives reasons why Long Mound is not wholly natural
Birkle Hills ? ND35NW 5 ?
October 3rd 1865 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal”
Birkle Hills ND35NW 5
October 3rd 1865 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal”
April 24th 1866 “The Orcadian”
September 18th 1866 “The Orcadian”
October 18th 1893 “Orkney Herald”
Dingwall
December 3rd 1870 “The Orcadian” previous Tuesday 2 E/W aligned cists found 6’ apart in gravelly eminence at W end of Dingwall a few feet under clay subsoil. One disturbed previously, other had two decorated urns in fragments with human bones at eastern end
Ha’ of Bowermadden ND26SW 7
October 3rd 1865 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal”
Keiss North/White ND36SE 3 Keiss White Gate Broch
October 18th 1893 “Orkney Herald”
Keiss Road ND36SW 1 Churchyard Mound / Churchyard Road Broch / Kirk Toft
September 18th 1866 “The Orcadian”
October 18th 1893 “Orkney Herald”
Keiss South ND36SE 2 Harbour Mound
October 18th 1893 “Orkney Herald”
Kettleburn ND35SW 11
November 8th 1864 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal” cists have been found in adjacent field on Long Hills ridge October 3rd 1865 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal” referred to as only properly explored broch in Caithness, dug by Henry Rhind
Kirkatahos
April 24th 1866 “The Orcadian” worked iron fragment found in chambered tomb in middle of Kirkatahos moor on hill/ridge
Long Hills
November 8th 1864 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal” in next field to Kettleburn broch 4’ by 3’ cinerary cist found on Long Hills ridge. Similar cists have come from the ridge in the past and a bronze brooch found in one by landowner James Henderson of Bilbister sent to Society of Antiquaries museum
Thurso ND16NW 17
July 22nd 1896 Orkney Herald” discovery location and description
Yarrows
November 1st 1864 “The Orcadian” roughly 2 years before Ackergill Links ND35NW 9 dug J.G.T. Sinclair of Ulbster excavated Bronze Age cist in conical mound on a hill summit in Yarrows with skeleton similarly interred with shore material brought from some distance away. Found with bronze spearhead, 10” long porphyry lance-head, black clay-slate.battle axe with 7” blade, porphyry knife and arrowheads, broken black stone knife and a mallet head broken at the ends
Wester Broch ? ND35NW 4 ?
October 3rd 1865 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal”
Wester Broch ND35NW 4 Keiss Wester Broch
October 3rd 1865 “The Orcadian” from “John O’Groat’s Journal”
April 24th 1866 “The Orcadian”
September 18th 1866 “The Orcadian”
October 18th 1893 “Orkney Herald” reporters did not have time to look at
There were originally five or six mounds in the field next to Sandyhall, NMRS record no. HY31NE 7, In 1966 three survived; 1/A at HY39861951 a squared off grassy mound about 15m across and rising to 1.8m max, B at HY39861945 a spread out mound roughly 10m D and 0.7m high (Sandyhill 1 0.15m in height in 1993), and C a significant rise some 12m D and 0.8m high at HY39891937 (Sandyhill 3 partly protected by a building and 0.3m high). “The Orcadian” of November 3rd 1863 describes a cist found in the centre of a Sandy Hall knowe by John Louttit. This cist was roughly 3½’ long, 20” wide and ~18” deep. Removing the rough flag coverstone revealed a burnt clay urn filled with burnt bone. This well-used urn had at some stage had to be clamped/stitched together and “broken long ago”. The cist was re-excavated in 1968, described then as an E/W aligned cist 0.91x~0.5x~ and ~0.4m deep, sitting on the natural.
Ness of Woodwick broch, NMRS record no. HY42SW 9, aka the Craig of Ritten/Rittin. The ‘crag’ is an impressive mound with dimensions estimated as 50-60 feet across with an inner diameter about half that – in 1946 at the seaward side to the NE about 20’ of outer wall (thought to be the outer wall-face) could be observed. No midden was seen. Twenty years later most of this outer wall was overgrown like the rest of the mound. Hedges notes that the rocky outcrops and sand below would be a good place to haul up a boat.
Redland South cairn, NMRS record no. HY32SE 17, was at least 27m long by 12m wide. Aligned ESE/WSW it sat on the edge of a shallow NW/SE plateau ~83m x ~15m, a natural dip on the NW side marked by an old track. A long stalled chamber is marked by eight protruding stumps. The compartments were most likely some 1.65m, though there was a longer compartment or two shorter ones between slabs 6 and 7 and the end compartment was also somewhat longer. The Redland Standing Stone and its partner formed a stall 4.1m from one end of the chamber [either the other stalls also once stood to a man’s height and they are much reduced or there was a considerable variation in height, though what comes to my mind is Weyland Smithy]. It is thought possible that the cairn continued beyond the NE cairn material. Also there is a 1.3m long 0.4m high orthostat SE of the chamber not following its axis.
Seven Knowes, HY32SE 8, is a compact group of bowl barrows set in boggy ground. They are on what the record calls a low plateau, and range in diameter from 12 to 35ft and in height from 18 ins to 2ft 6 ins. Excavations of three in close proximity to one another in 1998 found two of them had centrally placed cremation cists , these being evenly spaced around the mounds and taking the form of rounded pits dug into the hillwash that also covered them. Crude stone tools were found on top of the cists and also on the kerbs of these mounds. The two best surviving mounds, the largest, and most of the smaller ones have been dug before
RCAMS 273 the Redland standing stone was, and stil is, the most visible piece of Redland South’s stonework. Until the 1880s, when a farmer smashed it to stop livestock using it as a rubbing stone, it stood about 2m high. The irregularly topped stump is described in the late 1920s as 12 or 16” high by 3’ broad by 6” thick, and aligned ENE/WSW like Staneyhill. At that time the 4’8” upper fragment, tapering to a 2’7” squared off top, lay where it fell. In 1929 the ground around the stone was described as irregular with some small earthfast stones with the smaller stump of another standing stone mere feet away. So the excavation we see here is 1930 or later. More to follow on the cairn proper when I’ve sifted through photos from three visits. Cairn is in two fields on your right as you go from the Evie road to the Broch of Gurness
NMRS record no. HY50NE 41 stands over a man’s height at a little over 2m high and is 50m long by 17m high. The records says that under the plough as well burnt material red stones come up too.
RCAHMS record no HY31NE 1 at Chapel Point, south of Burness ‘burgh headland’ in Firth. The name Chapel Knowe probably replaces the field-name Chapel Park [park=quoy ‘enclosure]. In 1922 Mr Stevenson, the landowner, removed copious amounts of stone to build very sturdy fieldwalls, despite which the broch profile is still obvious. A draper called Turfus found in the debris an incised 40” fragment of red sandstone with a two-and-a-half inch high cloaked figure and other assorted markings. On the west side a broch wall section 14’ long and 9’ high was exposed, having a 2’ thick secondary wall built against the face. At its south end a lintelled passage led to a corbelled mural cell with a void above that. The mound sits on a platform aligned N/S and up to 25m across according to which direction you look. Hugh Marwick, who followed up on the discovery, estimated the broch interior as only twenty feet. The archaeologists apply the Chapel Park name to a twenty metre stone spread running NW from the mound.
NMRS HY50NE 5. Here over the course of a few years Mr Aim, the farmer at Blow(e)s, came across internments near its crest in 1929 and 1932 (the record says 1933, but Callendar’s article from that October refers the discovery to “January last”). On both occasions he covered the finds until the archaeologists came. In early March 1929 whilst digging into the clay his plough lifted the coverstone of a short cist containing an eight inch high dolomitic steatite urn and potsherds from a small urn. The cist was hollowed into a circular depresssion 4-5” deep in the centre, floored with stone flakes averaging some 5” square and ¼” thick. In plan it was approx. 20” by 16” with sides of bluish Orkney sandstone slabs each 18” deep and 1½” thick. There was a layer of burnt human bones 5-6” deep. After excavation the farmer put the remains back and covered the find. in January 1932 Mr Aim made another find only a few feet away. This consisted of a Bronze Age cinerary urn and fragments of a smaller one, both of clay. The large urn held bone ash and potsherds. When the archaeologists came and did their excavation they found an urn-shaped cavity under a coverstone just five feet away, though it had never held an urn. It measured some 15” deep and 12” wide diminishing to 5”, and was almost completely filled with the dark greasy remains of bones. Though the urn passed to the museum the rest was re-buried as before.
The decoration is matched by that found at this year’s Smerquoy dig in Firth, as shown by the excavator with a photo – so obviously the stone is still there, though the image was labelled Ersdale
A 13m x 3m x 2m wall was constructed from the Rossel Howe Cairn material (HY22SW 5) some time after the Orkney Name Book of 1880 (the ONB actually places two tumuli here). During the demolition human remains were found in a cist. At the south-east end two stones, one approx 2.3x0.6 m fallen but the other approx 2.3x0.8 m still erect, are thought likely parts of a chamber.
The 1st 25” map show’s Peter’s Kirk (HY32NW 12 at HY33742870) on uncultivated land between the low cliff and an obtuse angle wall, west of which ‘enclosure’ are the legend Burial Ground and a due N/S aligned oval Cairn (apparently banked) slightly bigger than the kirk – another smaller building is shown at the edge of the southern wall segment near the corner. The stone cairn (HY32NW 16 at HY33712870) is presently described as turf-covered, about 9mD by 0.7m in height and marking the edge of a settlement mound at whose highest point the kirk is. Though in 1967 Ordnance Survey were unable to classify it, as the result of what they considered severe mutilation, in 1981 the SMR talks of what might be the concave inner face of a structural wall on the north side, formed by a row of edge-set slabs. Also on the settlement’s edge, east to south-east of the kirk, are several irregularly placed erect stones. These are tentatively described as grave-markers but could be from an underlying structure [as with the broch features diggers have found at Warebeth Cemetery on occasion]. To the north-east of the site the cliff cuts through the settlement to reveal traces of prehistoric structures up to three metres in depth, described as unsurveyable by O.S. in 1967. Alongside is kitchen-midden.
NMRS record no HY33SE 13 – the 1880 Namebook confusingly names this as the loch chapel site as well as Bretta Ness, with finds of deer remains and coins and reference to possible earlier building. In 1912 “The Orcadian” tells us that this island was still connected to the west shoreline by the remains of a bridge (then a foot underwater) with a fault half-way. Later underwater features were observed where it met the shore but these are apparently buried now. A 1972 report tells us that the stepping stones start midway along the north-west side of a ?modern wall on the island and continued visibly in that direction for some thirty metres. This wall running around the island is sub-divided into two unequal enclosures, but salmonberry hides any internal remains there might be. There may be traces of sections of an earlier wall a metre or two outside this, and just above the waterline walling has been noted.
RCAHMS record no. HY42N W15 is a ten-foot high turf-covered broch mound, apparently excavated (slight depression on summit), with extensive outbuildings to the south showing as many areas of exposed stonework. Thirty metres from the tower there is a shingle beach rather than the usual rocky Rousay shore, with further archaeology in the shore banks themselves . A rough, unploughable section of the next field west continues the five-foot high broad platform on which the broch sits. An exposed inner broch wall-section a yard long and a foot high has been extrapolated to give a diameter of 30-33’ (with walls at least 10-12’ thick) and its platform extends about two-hundred feet from the fieldwall. The whole broch is bounded at the west by a curving ditch 3-4m wide by 2.2m deep, on whose inner lip a possible fortification is indicated by a stone wall. And an outer wall can be read from more stonework west of the ditch itself.
As NMRS record number HY31NE 14 only gives a grid reference of HY3918 perhaps this was part of a barrow cemetery with the Oyce of Isbister mounds, which are only some quarter of a mile from the mill.
In 1858 by James Muir, tenant of Isbister mill and farm, found several cists close to his house. The largest was 2’3” wide, with the SW side 5’8” long and that on the NE 4’8” long. To help prevent the ingress of water the depth was greater on the longer side (2’10” as against 2’7” max) with a half-an-inch of gravel on the level bottom. A flexed skeleton lay on its RH side at the NW end and another at the opposite end. Petrie noticed what looked to be outline traces of a large barrow in the surrounding ground. Another cist, with a similarly slanted lid and found about 5’ to the SW held the skeleton of a woman face down. It was only 1’10” wide by 3’ long and deep. The skull was at the ESE, a few bones near the middle and a heap of burnt ones a foot from the other end. Later a third cist a mere foot square was found 5/6’ from the SE end of the second cist and had a pile of burnt bone fragments in the centre. NMRS record number HY31NE 14 only gives a grid reference of HY3918.
The Oyce of Isbister mounds (NMRS record number HY31NE 8) are only about a quarter of a mile from the mill. In 1946 apart from a grave mound these ranged from about 15’ to some 21’D, with a maximum height of 3’ (though there was a 6’ high one [E] at HY39011810 it is most likely natural). The OS in 1966 give three as probable barrows (A at HY39021802, B at HY39001802, C at HY38981801) and three probable burnt mounds (D at HY39001808, F at HY39001811, G at HY39001813) plus the natural one (E at HY39011810). On the other hand in 1979 Hedges gives 4 small burnt mounds (on the E bank of a burn emptying into a “lagoon”) 60m from twa earthen mounds lying atop slightly raised land. But I suspect his numbers come from his desire to keep the two kinds physically seperate. The largest mound, A, was 5’ high. is composed of earth with small stones, and contains a cist at least 3’6” long (whose east end is missing). This was 45’ across in 1946, but in 1966 the OS found its measurements to be roughly 14m E/W by 12m N/S.
The felsite may be significant as tools were mde from this in prehistory
On the mainland or in England there would be fewer doubters of its antiquity, we just have so many candidates to accept more than a few now! But perhaps the antiquarians thought it might be more than a standing stone, because some have seen more stones in the depression in which it sits. I assume that like the Loch of Tankerness this lochan’s borders have increased since at least the Bronze Age, and there are marshy areas abouts. Stone circles aside not a few of our acknowledged standing stones have turned out to be stood on, or the remains of, cairns [e.g. Stanerandy] or tombs [e.g. Redland North]. On a small promontory a few hundred metres north of Kirbuster are the remains of a prehistoric settlement which produced Iron Age tools etc – the Knowe of Nesthouse, HY22NE 6 at HY27942568, is [IIRC] near a small ‘caravan park’.
When the Knoll of Burian was partly excavated in 1866 they found a large “brough”, but though the rest was being laid bare the outworks were left alone. Farrer found “underground cupboards, partly beneath the floor of the main circular chamber” and three steps he thought to have been part of an (?intra-mural) staircase. A sketch and plan by George Petrie show what are interpreted as a hearth and tank in the central chamber with a built wall dividing this from a long
curving room on the north side and 3 small cells ? sleeping-quarters. Now some think it a wheelhouse, which is a round house divided into compartments by radial slabs, though.the few features have been compared to Burroughston on Shapinsay and Bu in Stromness.
The Nettletar/Netlater Broch was revealed in about 1860 when the Rev.Dr.Trail excavated a large mound some 200 yards south of the manse, and hard by the present course of the Burn of Nettleton, whilst making improvements to his land. Roughly five years later local antiquarian George Petrie came to investigate. He published his observations and plans (from sketches) in an 1873 article. Later there are joint manuscripts with Sir Henry Dryden including annotated elevations. In his article Petrie mostly described what he personally saw and, strangely, nowhere gives the like of wall heights – perhaps these only came with Dryden’s 1866 measurements. Modern commentators give Petrie ‘stick’ for things he only took from others observations or indeed never mentioned as seen by him. tIt is much to be regretted that we are missing Trail’s actual notes for instance, as Petrie tells us that several important features of the broch and its adjuncts had been destroyed prior to his visit. Unfortunately Dryden had the draughtsman’s eye to draw things as they should have been rather than as they presented themselves.
During the 1860s improvements the Burn of Nettleton had its course straightened. From a point on the ‘upper’ side of the broch a small conduit was thought to connect to a well inside the tower. This conduit passed through an oval enclosure east of the broch, though at the time Petrie only saw two walls some distance apart cut through where space had been cleared [by the broch builders or Trail isn’t obvious in the text, presumably the latter] in front of the broch entrance. In the space and probably within said enclosure was a deep well, entered by several steps, covered by the time of the article. Between this vanished enclosure and the 12’ thick broch wall, and a yard from the latter, Petrie saw a rough stone wall (probably concentric, gone now anyway) some 3’ thick and ? 5’ high. Petrie was informed that this was faced only on the inner side, and by analogy with other brochs it has been since suggested that this is upper wall debris. The conduit might stop at this point. At a point outside the south-western part of the main tower hard by this wall calcine bone fragments were found in two large fire-baked clay urns. Petrie describes their appearance as “rude” but they had carefully cut triangular flagstone covers, said covers being roughly at the same level as the broch floor. Cut into the rough wall to the north side of a line from the passage, and abutting the broch tower, he saw a three foot deep cell/compartment, which at the time of his visit was the only remaining one of several found by Trail, chiefly on this same side. The cell’s entrance was only 22” wide and 2’6” high. None of these ??outbuildings were properly explored. There is dispute as to whether the broch walls survived to 6’6” or 8’6” high, but during the improvements about half of the stonework was robbed for the Glebe dykes [the field walls of the land belonging to the Manse] and by 1966 we are left with only a western arc upstanding. The broch entrance (now obliterated) is aligned approximately twenty degrees south of due east. For the first six feet its width was 2’9”, at which point it reached stone door jambs and broadened out to 4’ wide for the last six feet. The broch’s interior has a diameter of 33’4” and Laing tells us that there was a second pavement some 18” above the first. Inside on a line with, and close to the left-hand side of, the doorway there stood a radial stone about 4’9” high and 4’6” wide, with a hole about 2 inches in diameter through it within 14” of the inner edge at roughly mid-height – close to the wall at the back of this stone a human skull was found. The plan show several arrangements of wall fragments and edgeset stones (now gone [or perhaps ‘buried’] ) which Petrie thought post-dated the broch, though Hedges thinks that they could actually be contemporary with it. Within the broch tower wall three oval mural cells were roughly equidistant if you include the passage. Two chambers are describes as ruinous and the third to the south was deduced from remains. From the last nineteen steps of an intra-mural staircase ran clockwise from it, suggesting that the broch once had an upper floor. A subterranean passage near the centre of the interior led to five steps that gave access to a three foot square flag-lined rock-cut well near the interior wall – the bottom of the well lay 9’ below floor level. It is now choked with debris but in Petrie’s time it always held water.
On plan in looking at the outer cell remaining at the time of Petrie’s notes it rather obviously cuts into the fragmentary concentric wall. So either it post-dates the broch collapse or that wall is at the very least contemporary with the cell. Could it be that the compartment is really one of the guard cells one would expect to find just inside the entrance. It survives too well to simply have been left outside the broch tower after some later re-modelling reduced the broch’s diameter. So I think that the two walls are the inner and outer faces of a single wall, with the earth used as banking to shore it up. Which would give epic walls a minimum of 15’ thick, similar to the East Broch of Burray which is (partly) surrounded by an earth rampart. A modern dig would be needed to give an answer to this as the two levels of interior floor surely means that the Trail/Petrie/Dryden material relates to two, perhaps more, building phases.
Open from now until Halloween
When Stromness was planked in 1765 Innertoun was divided from Outertoun by “a line from the March Stone at the goe of Stinnigar and upwards to the March Stone at the west corner of Pressquoy, and from that in a crook eastward to the top of the Green Hillock, and from thence upwards through the middle of the Green Gate leading up to John Stout’s house called Gentle June [Gentlejohnshouse a.k.a. Castle (near Hillcrest) croft now abandoned HY236101].” At first I though the Green Hillock must be Brockan chambered mound, but that is westward. Another possibility is a mound S of Wester Leafea. But this is a “natural sandy knoll” rather (site of the Innertown cist HY20NW 3. Which leaves the Leafea standing stone pair as the only candidate for Green Hillock, the march stones those I saw coming up.
Orkney’s Hurtiso Hood dates back to at least Iron Age and is the oldest complete garment found in the UK (near Groatster/Grotsetter in St Andrew’s, though first report in 1863 stated “in the Holm district... in the moss off Hurtiso”).
orkneyjar.com/history/orkneyhood.htm
Orkney Herald :
May 23rd 1863 “One day last week... in the Holm district... in the moss off Hurtiso... exposed unexpectedly an ancient article of dress... This article was a short woolen cloak, finely adorned with fringes {?19} inches in length, and having a hood of the same material... This curious relic was found embedded in the moss at a depth of six feet, and under five solid layers of peat.” Hurtiso Farm HY506105 is in East Holm, which presumably makes the moss the extensive Muir of Meil.
December 5th 1877 “in Mr Petrie’s collection was a knitted woolen hood which was found in a moss in the parish of Kirkwall... which resembles in shape the old “trot cosy” of the last century... It had been done in bands, each with a seperate pattern, and round the edge is a fringe about twenty inches in depth.”
May 18th 1881 “Skeleton found... while engaged in peat cutting in the hills between Birsay and Evie... The remains... that of a female of about twenty years of age. Some pieces of cloth, apparently used for wrapping the body, or part of the deceased’s clothing... The strongest of the three pieces of cloth is of a peculiar woolen fabric... a close resemblance in texture and style to the hood found in a moss in the parish of St.Andrews upwards of 20 years ago..”
In 1990 Andrew Appleby reported that recently much had been removed by someone cutting across the seaward side.
David Lynn has now been here. On the one hand the broch expert has dropped it down a level from “probable” owing to insufficiency ofsurviving circularity. On the other hand I somehow missed a lot of associated large stones and blocks, so Dave agrees there is definitely something very big under the mound on which the church sits.
It has been asserted that there are further levels of the broch unexcavated but six foot is all that was found. This is not a greenfield site. Beneath the floor they found clay, vitrified sand and Neolithic potsherds (Grooved Ware and rough Rinyo-Clacton), and the Royal Commision found similar pottery in the kitchen midden [Grooved Ware has been found at Evie Sands by the Broch of Gurness]. Somewhere back on a hill south of the Toab road the descriptio of a tumulus, HY50NW 9, excavated by George Petrie in March 1850 (a 2m cutting from the east edge to the centre) gives us an idea of what likely preceded the broch. This conical barrow stood five feet high and thirty feet across inside a three foot wide shallow ditch. A ring of large burnt stones ran about the periphery of this clay mound. Halfway in the clay darkened and hardened. In the centre Petrie found a “considerable heap” of burnt bones and charcoal bits embedded in the clay in a three inch thick layer. He found no stones there and no tools in the barrow. Perhaps the five vanished Howies of Bossack (at the quarry that is now a tip) were similar. Petrie also dug one of the low flat-topped mounds a few feet away and found a NNE/SSW short cist containing earth and clay with some burnt bone at the bottom, with a celt deposited outside the NNE end. Could this be the nature of the presumed dwellings between Dingishow and the Deerness shore – they have been dismissed as the results of sand quarrying but the 1798 Statistical Account specifically refers to them as “hillocks of stones”.
The NMRS record for the site describes the present roofless kirk, which was built in 1621 at about the same time as the nearby Bow of Burray was rebuilt. St. Lawrence was patron saint of both Burray and South Ronaldsay, ecclesiastically the two were governed from Burray. According to the chairman of the Bu Sands planning commitee the original church was on the site of a Viking estate. The South Isles coastal survey had to miss out this area, though the principal broch profiles are readily observable without entering the field behind the kirk – my friend David Lynn, a broch expert, having seen some of my images agrees with my assessment (full confirmation pending some future visit alongside known suspects Kyelittle and Hillock of Fea).
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY50SW 6 is a N-S aligned stone standing 6’2” high and varying in width from 14½-28”. In about 1965 the stone was moved from a rapidly eroding clifftop a few metres inland to its present position (the small packing stones were removed between 1929 and 1964, presumably whilst moving the stone).
RCAHMS NMRS record no. is a 16.7 by 15.2m heather-grown bowl barrow on uncultivated land. An excellent spot by Jane Downes.
Accordiang to “Grampian Battlefields” some believe that it is this which is the actual Craibstane rather than the massive square boulder near the junction of Harfgate and Bon Accord Terrace (the crest of Clay Hill). In which case it was probably a march stone for Rubislaw.
According to “Grampian Battlefields” the Liggar’s Stone before removal to Mains of Inveramsay as a gatepost stood near Harlaw House, which would place it in mediaeval Harlaw – an unlikely place for a stone circle.
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