“the stone circle of Randra... formed of a lot of upright slabs of stone with the altar placed in the centre, the ground all round mixed with vitrified cramps locally called smithow cramps” 1903
wideford
Traditionally Stanerandy was Earl Randolph’s Stones, though the modern reading is ‘stony ridge’/’ridge of stones’. The etymology of gervie is unknown but could be from either i) ge(y)r, an odd bit of land, angular and often left uncultivated, or ii) gør ‘giantess/witch/trow’. Interestingly, these can be combined by the Northern Isles folklore that the ‘White Folk’ (Madruis or Queeda Folk) had enclosures surrounded by a dyke of earth or stones where there was often in one corner a rough affair, the White Chammer [i.e. chamber] where they lived. Certainly there are too many cut-off triangles of land in Orkney for coincidence.
In 1996 “Countrywoman” wrote of a rumour that in a museum somewhere there is a gold ornament from either Howe-Harper or a hollowed mound nearby.
A report in “The Orcadian” March 26th 1992 mentions a preliminary survey had been done of this and the surrounding area by a volunteer group (including the recenty deceased Anne Brundle). Thanks are due to Tommy Russell of Boardhouse farm for leaving the possible henge-type circle intact. In another Orcadian article “Countrywoman” informs us that the ‘moat’ and ‘ramparts’ are best seen when the land is cultivated whilst under a covering of snow.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31SW 34 is an area of disturbed ground 16x10 metres where there was once a large stone structure of unknown type. Roughly dressed stones are occasionally ploughed up on a slight rise and there are two such stones which are earthfast – I know of at least two other places where there are such stones directly outside of a building, and at least with one of those they must predate the structure.
my two minute inside video 12Mb downloadable from rapidshare.com/files/457215983/Unstan.P4050027.wmv
30s 3Mb video downloadable from rapidshare.com/files/457215914/Burrian_Corrigal.wmv as seen from Corrigall Farm Museum
my three minute video 17Mb downloadable from rapidshare.com/files/457221715/Isbister_Tomb.wmv
site open until Halloween, fiver charged. Follow signs for Banks of Orkney and Skerries Bistro
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 29 is 62’ across with an internal diameter of 32’, Petrie calls it a broch with outworks (it has subsequently been robbed of stone for building dykes). A line of boulders crosses the neck of the promontory, and as there is no mention of Farrer coming across evidence of Viking use I imagine this is original [or possibly comes from turning it into a promontory fort as water levels rose]. Ignore the modern wall across the centre. Facing you, in the NE quadrant, there is an inner wall face fragment with a mural cell and a door entrance On the other side, in the SE quadrant, there is a 20’ wall arc standing two foot high and some eight feet from the broch tower.
Geometric designs have been found on several stones round about including one sticking out of the ground near the fifth chamber. Source this week’s “The Orcadian”. Hopefully Sigurd will be updating Orkneyjar soon [he is now busy as news editor].
“The Orcadian” of 11/10/2001 says a geomagnetic survey that year found a concentric ditch survived around 70% of the base.
Andrew Appleby (once an excavator of cists) found a possible circle of stones between the Grimeston and Stoneyhill roads.This sparked my interest in the ‘Vola’ mound, but this year I attended an Orkney Archaeological Society talk by an Orkney College student [name escapes me] on a site called Henge, 80m diameter and cut across one end by the road. Described as little known it rings no bells. Unfortunately I could not identify the place from either image shown as this site does not show up well even in person or photograph other than badly. One of these was of a putative entrance, though without scale the devil’s advocate saw a passage into a field across a ditch. If I remember correctly geophysics had located several other interesting features round about. Dave Lynn [ex-Director of the CSA] came to see me and had visited the site, which is where the legend Staney Hill is shown on the 1:25,000 – he said it is by Henge Cottage. When he went water inside clearly defined the ditch, but as to the possible entrance he was of the opinion that this is due to one of the two tracks shown here on the first O.S. [when the present road did not exist].
Recovered during this exploration were the remains of at least eight folk, and it is hoped to carry out a fuller excavation this summer [funds possibly an issue].
This site was discovered in September 2010 by Hamish Mowatt of the Skeriies Bistro (hence early confusion over its whereabouts in South Ronaldsay) during work on his holiday homes at Banks. He found that one large flagstone to which no attention had been paid before covered a space in which a skull could be seen. It was soon realised that this was part of a chambered tomb that had suffered water ingress. Later reports added that this lay under a slight mound or ridge, partly removed by a JCB, that though much lower than that of the nearby Tomb of The Eagles would probably also have been seen from the sea. Not only had the tomb been built into the natural but it also started out as a rock-cut. Because this site is one of few found undisturbed in recent decades and it was feared material remains would deteriorate further under the standing water an emergency excavation was decided upon. This took place over two weeks October into November, though time was been lost to bad weather and nothing is yet known of the last few days [?abandoned as weather had worsened still further]. As a tomb entry lay through the short N/S leg of an L-shaped passage (a tee if you add the east chamber). There were five chambers altogether; one small cell off the north side, two small cells off the south side and two larger ones at either end of the long E/W section of the passage. The chambers used corbelled vaulting above courses of single stones. Many skeletal remains were found, chiefly skulls and fragments, but these as far as is known are all part of a final sealing of the tomb. This de-commissioning took place staccato over an extended period of time – basically slabs were placed over the cells, the human remains over these, and then further silty gray material completed the process.
On the 1st 25” O.S. several slopes are shown. On it the site aligns NE/SW, with at the eastern side a rectilinear half (having a sub-rectangular pit [or perhaps stone] at right angles to the longer side half-way along), at the western side an arc of the same length, and at the northern side two arcs of almost similar sizes (the west one less curved) with a gap between them due north. The RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY41NW 6 describes a broch tower of internal diameter nearly 30’ having a 19’6” long section of inner wall-face visible on the west side to a height of some 4’6” with an opening of over 2’6” blocked up in modern times. Inside the east ditch it mentions faint traces of the outer broch wall. The rectilnear half makes me wonder if it hasn’t been re-used by the Vikings, like Castle Howe in Holm.
With there being a possible boundary ditch south of the Tomb of the Eagles it is worth noting that an orthostatic slab south of the Banks Tomb is probably a boundary marker (RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND48SE 8 at ND459833, down as post-mediaeval though how they can be certain of one and not the other...). Also in the area Ronald Simison explored two out of six mounds at ND46128326 (ND48SE 4) both with kerbs and one apparently connected by a causeway to one of the others. He also found a kerb cairn at ND46338323 (ND48SE 3).
In 1880 there is a reference to the close proximty to Mine Howe of “Lang Howe, Round Howe, Stoney Howe, Stem Howe and Chapel”, from which I take Stoney Howe to be the burnt mound near Breck
Having noticed photographically that a line from the Barnhouse Stone through Maeshowe passes on to the Setter tumuli below Sordon (NMRS record no.HY31NW 14 at HY34581544 & 34631543, to whit two Bronze Age burial mounds) I wondered about the relative position of the Ke(i)thesgeo stone (HY31SW 41 at HY30351136). Pencilling in the position of the stake showing its former position onto a 1:25,000 map a line passes from it through Maeshowe to the Setter barrows, though missing out the Barnhouse Stone rather. Makes a useful backstop up on the Clouston hillside.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31SW 3 at HY39731260. This site came to light on a Friday afternoon when a steam threshing mill broke through the surface and became stuck. John Mooney and WilliamTraill came the same day for a look over and on the next Traill and Dr.Marwick gave “a more thorough examination”. Its walls are a mix of large ?natural boulders and small quarried stones. The corbelled roof sits on four stones a yard apart, slightly over a foot from the walls and and roughly foursquare [that they are unequal in height suggests to me a possible origin as standing stones]. This oval gallery chamber is 15’3” NW/SE by 8’6”, with a 27"x30” passage running approximately 10’ from the NW end that is lintelled by oversized untooled slabs. In the walls there are several rectangular niches [including a slot near the floor on the RH side] all of which were empty except for a skull in that opposite the entrance [I assume the one behind the ladder]. More skulls were found about the inner side of the “south pillar”. A mass of other bones were also found. At the outer end of the passage was shell midden material [ritual sealing ?]. All of this from report in “The Orkney Herald” of November 17th 1926. Viewed from the new entrance running clockwise the stones are southerly [LH near], westerly [LH far], northerly [RH far], easterly [RH near].
this season’s dig has begun and they now have 30 ox skulls in the foundations for which they can find nothing similar in Scotland [though J.W. Cursiter mentions the 1901 uncovering by storm near Skara Brae of a 3’ deep ox midden 100’ long, beneath which another storm two years later disclosed a building].
“This site has more than 420 stones is considered one of the most important of Central Brittany. Its construction dates back to more than 1,500 years. In 1989, after excavations, the majority of the standing at half-buried in the Heath there was discovered. The site extends over 7 hectares. Some stones weighing over 35 tons and can measure up to 5 meters”
Aubrey Burl has 22 schist stones (with three still standing) in two intersecting rows 55m N/S and 78m WSW/ENE [rather ragged on his plan]
Low had a little excavate but found nothing
Brand 1703 “the Minister of Sandwick’s Manse is said to have been the residence of one of the kings of Picts... to this day called Koningsgar or the King’s House... tho now kept in some repair... The figure thereof and the contrivance of its two Rooms or Chambers one above and one below, of narrow dimensions, and antick, and the Building hath been but coarse.”
In 1849 the Stone of Odin, smashed in 1814, is reported as having been 150 yards to the N of the Stones of Stenness. Trouble is Pococke has it 124 yards E of a stone that was 18 yards to the SE of the circle and William Aberdeen’s perspective drawing slightly later depicts it to the E and south of the circle too. Pococke’s drawing of the the lesser circle from the north shows other stones to its E and perhaps a block between it and the henge but no holed stone.
Low ~1774 “[Stones of Stenness] not ditched about like ... [Ring of Brodgar]..but surrounded with a raised mound partly raised on the live earth, as the other was cut from it”
Wilson 1842 ” the completer... circle of the... Stones of Stennis... as you approach them you pass here and there a solitary stone or broken remnant, as if there had been... a connecting range or approach, all the way from the bridge to the great circle. The latter is encompassed by a still entire mound, surrounded by a foss [sic], and there is a filling up of the foss and a lowering of the mound, just at two entrance places, opposite each other, north and south.”
1760 Pococke’s drawing shows a second stone on the opposite side of the road a little further away from the roadside. This is longer than it is tall and resembles a recumbent [though I suppose it could be a very large natural boulder like the Savile Stone]. The ‘companion’ stone is actually a diamond shape which if to the same scale as the Watch Stone would come oot as some 14’ high and wide ! As far as I can tell from Pococke’s drawing it would have been about grid ref HY30671275.
Wilson 1842 “Close to either side of the southern end of the bridge... stands a great sentinel stone...
...as you approach [the Ring of Brodgar] you pass here and there a solitary stone or broken remnant, as if there had been... a connecting range or approach, all the way from the bridge to the great circle”
There were once more stones than those in the circle
1760 “There are two standing to the South, one is wanting, and there are two stones standing, a third lying down, then three are wanting, there being a space of 27 yards so that there were eight in all : Eighteen yards South East from the circle is a single stone, and 124 yards to the East of that is another [Odin Stone] with a hole in one side towards the bottom, from which going to the circle is another [stone] 73 yards from the fossee [sic], the outer part of which fossee is 16 yards from the circle” and as this was summertime I guess stumps lay hidden in the grass.
Low ~1774 “”[Stones of Stenness] The drawing shows the stones in their present state, which is four entire and one broken [??recumbent]. It is not ditched about like ... [Ring of Brodgar]..but surrounded with a raised mound partly raised on the live earth, as the other was cut from it... near the circle are several stones set on end without any regular order, or several of them so much broken, hinder us as to the design of them.“”
It seems that sometime between 1760 and 1842 several were nudged and then between 1842 and Thomas visit several were destroyed as described. His disbelief arises because he only knew of the circle itself. One of the external stones was a companion to the Watchstone on the other side of the road and further from it, a fat ?recumbent still there in 1842.
1842 “Stones of Stennis... in one case in a vast circle surrounded by a mount, in the other in insulated groups of two or three together, either forming parts of an approach to the circle, or themselves the sole remnants of other corresponding circles...
none of them is very thick in proportion to its height and breadth... The summits are generally diagonal... and they seem also in many cases to be imbedded in the earth by a corresponding sloping corner. Their original position was no doubt perpendicular although others are leaning to their fall, and not a few are lying flat upon the ground...
Although the gigantic remnants near the Kirkwall road are too few in number to indicate the circular form, yet that... is sufficiently manifested by the distinct traces of a large green mound in which they are enclosed... almost continuous semicircle... the other segment having been ploughrd up... One of the largest of these stones now lies flat... having been loosened it is said... by the plough, and soon after blown over by a gale”
Pococke 1760
“[from the Ring of Brodgar] There is a single pillar about 50 yards to the North East, and a barrow to the North and South, one to the South West and another to the North East...
another circle of stones [Stones of Stenness] which are 15 feet high, 6 feet broad, the circle is about 30 yards in diameter, and the stones are about 8 yards apart. There are two standing to the South, one is wanting, and there are two stones standing, a third lying down, then three are wanting, there being a space of 27 yards so that there were eight in all : Eighteen yards South East from the circle is a single stone, and 124 yards to the East of that is another [Odin Stone] with a hole in one side towards the bottom, from which going to the circle is another [stone] 73 yards from the fossee [sic], the outer part of which fossee is 16 yards from the circle : there are several small barrows chiefly to the East [Clovy Knowes].” His map shows a large squat stone close to the shore E of the S end of the bridge – this and the possible causeway perhaps a reminder of when the main road went along the driveway to Stenness Kirk.
Low ~1774 unpublished ms “History of the Orkneys” quoted in 1879 edition published by William Peace [referring to a lost drawing, that published being one by William Aberdeen from the1760’s]
“[Stones of Stenness] The drawing shows the stones in their present state, which is four entire and one broken [??recumbent]. It is not ditched about like ... [Ring of Brodgar]..but surrounded with a raised mound partly raised on the live earth, as the other was cut from it... near the circle are several stones set on end without any regular order, or several of them so much broken, hinder us as to the design of them.”
William Aberdeen’s annotated map [donated to Royal Society of London 1784] is the source of observations attributed later to Hibbert
“When Oliver Cromwell’s men were in this county they dug tolerably deep in the top [of Maeshowe] , but found nothing but earth” also that site used for archery + “[E of Ring of Brodgar] a small mount... still retains the name of Watch Hill or Tower [Plumcake Mound rather than Fresh Knowe I think].”
The Dyke o’Sean, aka the Dyke of Seean ‘line’ [i.e. boundary dyke] RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 68 presently runs from HY28901367 to HY29431362 (across the parish boundary as it now is) but formerly ran from loch to loch with the Loch of Stenness end “built on each side” , with a cart once being with difficulty extracted therefrom. Close by the dyke’s north side is the Wasbister Disc Barrow and to its east a mound now not classified as burnt, then a whole settlement. The paucity of sites between it and the Ring of Brodgar complex would appear to indicate a prehistoric date, especially seeing how busy that landscape is N of the dyke. The nearest found by geophsics are two possible ring ditches HY21SE 93 somewhere in the field to the south’s southern half. At some remove, near the complex at HY29051322, by Stenness loch is an L-shaped cropmark some 55m long and ending at the shoreline. RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 89 is seen as a drain and/or enclosure but may be compared to a feature (HY465131) in the Carness Brecks below Blackhall.
In order to enlarge a field by the Bridge of Brodgar a large amount of a tumulus had to be removed as it impinged upon the corner. The labourers had cut a section 3-4’ deep and thrown the earth removed up onto the mound. Amongst the discard they found what is described as a sinker. Description of ‘sinker’ is an incised water-worn sandstone 7 1/2 inches long, a tapered oblong with a groove around the side. One side quartered to contain sadly degraded images, other decorated with two fishes and a probable seal. Yep, it’s that stone. No wonder this site had been ascribed to a [Pictish] broch. Some years before an arrow-head and a scraper, both of flint, had been found in the mound. (P.S.A.S. XXII [1887-8] article by James Noble).
The mound appears to have been dug even earlier as Thomas’ map of 1851 has some detail of the structure [not apparent on reproductions] including an entrance passage along the side facing the road. Cut was made near back of tumulus. Now I have had a photocopy fom the library and using an Agfa lupe my passage runs along the N side of the east lobe of a kidney shape occupying the S side of the ?top. Opposite the west lobe is a circle and then a curve runs arond the remaining [north-eastern quadrant], possibly joining the outside line of the ‘kidney’.
On my images of HY21SE 9 & 24 eastern=downhill, southern=Brodgar etc.
The greener grass looks to show where excavations have taken place (or on level bits ground disturbed by walking I suppose).
HY21NE 12 at HY28001647 is a flat-topped turf-covered mound of earth & stones 25’D, a metre high but topped by a 5’D mound of almost the same height. A barrow-digger started work on the ‘building’ but was thankfully stopped byy the farmer. The NMRS reference to a rouge pot etc is an error for my news index for Skara Brae NW 12
Wasbister Cairn, NMRS record no. HY21SE 19 at HY28811397, is a small mound of earth and stones on the SE slope of the hill between the Ring of Brodgar and Bookan farm, by the top end of the fence from the road. There was a stone setting around the base and its present dimensions of ~8mD by 0.6m high accords well with 27x1.5’ then (though I make it vary 6.4-6.5m across, giving some idea of the annular ring’s dimensions).
Wasbister Mound, RCAHMS record no. HY21SE 20 at HY28961378. is a possible burnt mound 6mD by 0.3m high (I only made out 5m across and measuring from lowest point of immediately surrounding land 0.6m high) close to a “small loch” and roughly 100 yards E of the ‘disc barrow’.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 9 consists of two cairns at HY28591427 and 28601422, both N/S aligned, with no finds known. Call them i) and ii) I shall. In 1880 i) measured six feet high and some fifty feet across, being almost sub-rectangular, now it is down as a grassy N/S oval 23.7m by 15.7m and 1.7m high of many small stones having a slight depression in its top. Item ii) was described as eighty feet around and four-and-a-half high, now is an oval 20.6m by 15.7m varying from 2.5m high on the uphill side to only 1m on the downhill side – not what you would expect from a level mound on a hillside. At its centre many small stones are exposed in a not quite circular depression some 6mD. Could the basin of burnt ?soapstone [HY21SE 44] found in 1926 have come from this vicinity ?
In the 16thC Jo Ben saw the complete skeleton of an alleged 14’ giant who had been found in a tomb on a small hill near the loch of Stenhouse, with coins beneath his head [presumably Viking], and I wonder if this relates to the “stone coffin” the 1880 ONB records on being found on an eminence described as being “thrown [up] by the Brecks” 1/4 mile S of Bookan and almost 1/2 mile SW of Bockan. Usually for coffin one should read long cist. The cairn looked to be a smaller version of Skae Frue so there must have been something distinctive they then both held in common, most likely a large robbed depression in the centre. Unfortunately no such site exists now [or there was a reluctance to identify it with a recognised site] so the best guess is that it should be identified with a mound on the other side of a defunct farm track from HY21SE 9 ii) which merges with the quarry’s E side [could the quarry have ‘swallowed up’ the actual site if this was not it ?]. RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 24 at HY28571426 is some 13mD and like the cairn over the way is higher on the uphill side, varying from 1.7m to 0.8m [could they sit in a larger depression that perhaps preceded the quarry ??]
The chambered tomb mound can be seen on 2 photos in “Current Archaeology” April 2010 article on Ness of Brodgar : p.12 behind house, p.15 behind Lochview stones [if these were part of an avenue between the stone circles it would have to be fairly sinuous to go around the mound]
Hedges regards the semi-circular structure with passage as perhaps Pictish
photo ID required if using Northlink Ferries or coming via Loganair (though a visitor found British Airways did not need this some of their routes use Loganair planes at times), so be warned using Scrabster-Stromness or Kirkwall Airport
This site could have been important long before the henge as cones from postholes outside of this provided the unusually early date of 6000 BCE, long before Mona was settled
In a book on the Breckness Estate there is a quote from 1830 of “a mound of stones on the sea beach, called the Castle of Sneusgarth” which means the castle is either this mound or (more likely) the broch [unless there was a now lost mound at the taing]. The castle is a moveable feast whichever way you read things.
At an OAS set of talks tonight audience shown an aerial photograph showing a cropmark [nearer Bockan than Buckan it looked] in a field on the opposite side of the road to the Ring of Bookan and being a circular feature of much the same dimensions to it. Given as a possibilty that this relates to a recorded flint scatter hereabouts, presumably a reference to the small brown & yellow mottled ground flint hammer from Bockan (NMRS record HY21SE 52). More to the point is that Bockan house was part of traditions centred round the two great circles and used to have some idols [possibly Iron Age, like those at e.g. Brecks of Netherbrough and Dale souterrain, rather than Neolithic ?]
There were once two mounds by the ring, excavated away by James Farrar in 1861 [or the remains flattened later]. Though he placed these at the west and east sides he more specifically locates them at the NW and NE extremities. An indication of their height is that his men dug 22’ deep vertical trenches into the subsoil, the former nine feet square and the latter thereabouts. The only finds from the mounds themselves were animal bones, mostly in the upper parts, but deeply embedded stones were found around the bases.
source : July 27th 1861 “The Orcadian”
In a talk today Euan MacKie mentioned that two of the Ring of Brodgar stones align almost exactly N/S, which is the same as the central hearth of the Standing Stones of Stenness. In neither case do these point to other archaeological sites.
Access to the site has been improved and it is now part of the West Coast Walk (the Viking Heaths project is out of booklets at the moment), still from Yesnaby car park – though there is as yet no signpost for the walk at this.
DO NOT park on the grass anywhere
points 33 degrees W of N, the stub with NE/SW alignment not making a ‘gateway’ therefore
Continuing diary of this year’s excavations, with several photos every day orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/diary.htm
Must say that apart from being a circle the cup and ring slab is much more likely to be an eye decoration
At the autumn equinox this dolmen produces a downward triangle of light (photo yoniversum.nl/yoni/nat05.html)
“Orkney Today” and “The Orcadian” of June 4th 2009 reported the discovery by tractor wheel of an otherwise undetectable potential tomb at Heathfield, beehive shaped and built straight into the bedrock,with a lintelled space opposite the corbelled cell. The farmer is leaving the field unused for any purpose until funds can be obtained for it to be investigated further – geology means geophysics has produced little result [if I had been the farmer I’d put a fence round an area the size of the known tomb and cultivate the rest – as long as he leaves it alone they will procrastinate unless he does a Ronnie.
Passed by what looks to be the site today, a piece of rough land, along a line of telegraph-type poles in what is now a field of low pasture. Not what you could call a hillcrest but rather a small plateau. This is an area often well-drenched (one reason the new route is such a pain as the tourist doesn’t find out until the top of the new bit) and more like somewhere to find a souterrain like Rennibister. The top is level with ground level and even if there had been something above this isn’t much of site to look onto things or be looked up to, kind of the minimum required for positioning a chambered tomb. The farm drains where an earlier subterranean structure was found, so we could be looking at an area of these similar to Hatston (2 each at Grain and the aerodrome runway). So to me a likely example of the old ‘gallery grave’ earthhouse class.
RCAHMS record no. HY21SW 3 has the same official name of “Quholm, Burn of Una” as two burnt mounds NW 3 by the Burn of Quholmslie [unmapped metre-high mounds near the angle in the Works road nearer the loch]. In the 1880 Orkney Name Book this is a grassy round tumulus. Though still two-and-a-half metres high it now has a 1.3m deep cut from an unrecorded excavation – nothing is known of any finds. Burnt stones in the E’ern slope (i.e. facing away from the road to the loch) have led to its typing, since 1928, as a burnt mound. Still highly visible.