Description

The monument is the Dwarfie Stane, which is a rock-cut tomb of the neolithic period, and an area around it including the entrance blocking stone and a similar stone ESE of the tomb.

The monument includes a large flat block of sandstone 8.6m long by 4.4m to 3.9m wide and up to 2m high, orientated SSE-NNW, and the tomb cut into it, together with the closing stone (up to 1.6m long, 0.8m wide and 0.65m high) which lies near the entrance to the tomb.

It also includes a worked stone, of similar dimensions to the blocking stone, which lies 31m to the ESE of the SE corner of the Dwarfie Stane. It also includes an area around the tomb in which evidence of activities associated with its creation and use are likely to survive.

The area to be scheduled measures 100m square, centred on the Dwarfie Stane, as outlined in red on the attached map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a well preserved Neolithic tomb. Its passage and chamber are carved into a massive erratic block of sandstone and remarkable detail of its interior survives, providing an insight into fittings of other chambered tombs. The stone which closed its passage lies beside it, and some 35m away is a partly worked stone of similar size. The untilled area around the Dwarfie Stane is likely to contain evidence of its creation and use of a kind unavailable at many other broadly similar monuments.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY 20 SW 8.

Reference:

Davidson, J. L. and Henshall, A. S. (1989) The chambered cairns of Orkney: an inventory of the structures and their contents, Edinburgh, 26, 29-30, 60, 62, 88, 114-15, no. 13.
Historic Environment Scotland Properties
Dwarfie Stane
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/dwarfie-stane
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Source: Historic Environment Scotland