Description

The monument comprises the remains of a chambered cairn dating from the Neolithic period, probably built and in use between 3600 BC and 2500 BC. It is visible as a low, grass-covered mound with exposed structural stone features. The cairn is located slightly set back from the edge of a low sea cliff at the northwest end of the island of Faray.

The mound of the cairn is around 14m in diameter and stands to 1.3m at its maximum height. It has been partially excavated in the past. The chamber is visible as a hollow in the centre of the mound in which three pairs of stalls divided by orthostats can be identified. Two linear features radiate from the northeast and southwest sides of the cairn. A roughly triangular raised area measuring around 6.7m long, 2m wide and 0.2m high, with one side slab and two smaller stones protruding from it, lies to the west northwest of the cairn.

The scheduled area is circular, measuring 25m in diameter. It includes the remains described above and an area around within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The national importance of the monument is demonstrated in the following ways (see Designations Policy and Selection Guidance, Annex 1, para 17):

a. The monument is of national importance because it has the potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past. Chambered cairns are one of the main sources of evidence for the Neolithic in Scotland and so are an important in our understanding of the nature of Scotland's prehistoric society and landscape. The example contributes to our understanding of the design, construction and siting of prehistoric burial monuments in the Neolithic period.

b. The monument retains structural, architectural, decorative or other physical attributes which make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past. In particular, the cairn retains structural details in the form of its stalled chamber and there is significant potential for the survival of buried archaeological deposits. This can contribute to our understanding of the meaning and importance of death and burial in the Neolithic period.

d. The monument is a good example of a Neolithic chambered cairn and is therefore an important representative of this monument type. It can enhance our understanding of Neolithic society and economy, as well as the nature of burial and ceremonial practices and belief systems.

e. The monument has research potential which could significantly contribute to our understanding or appreciation of the past. Although disturbed, the remains of the cairn have the potential to provide material for carbon dating which when compared with similar monuments could contribute to a better understanding of the chronological development of cairn building during this period of Scottish prehistory. Additionally, there is the potential for environmental material to survive within the cairn which could provide information on demographics, land use and environment.

f. The monument makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the historic landscape. Chambered cairns are found in a variety of locations in the Orcadian archipelago, and the siting of these burial monuments can give important insights into the Neolithic landscape and add to our understanding of social organisation.

Assessment of Cultural Significance

This statement of national importance has been informed by the following assessment of cultural significance:

Intrinsic characteristics (how the remains of a site or place contribute to our knowledge of the past)

The monument is an upstanding example of a chambered cairn. Although subject to undocumented excavation in the past, it survives as a substantial monument, suggestive of its original scale and form. It is an Orkney-Cromarty chambered cairn, characterised by a single chamber divided into stall-like "compartments" by stone uprights (suggesting a tripartite division). Earlier interpretations identified this as an example of a short-horned cairn with the projections from the northeast and southwest sides of the cairn being the remains of horns. However, the cairn is now thought to be a round cairn with the projections interpreted as later features (Henshall 1963, 198-9; Davidson & Henshall 1989, 1117-8).  

Dating evidence from similar chambered cairns elsewhere demonstrates that they were constructed and in use between around 3600 BC and 2500 BC. Some examples were re-used in the later Bronze Age. They were used for communal burial and ritual, and excavation has revealed evidence of complex development sequences. Therefore, this cairn may have been in use for a long period of time. Scientific study of the cairn's form and construction techniques compared with other chambered cairns would enhance our understanding of the development sequence of this site and of chambered cairns in general.

Although the cairn has been dug into in the past, excavations at similar sites have established that there is good potential for the survival of archaeological deposits, including human burials, artefacts and environmental remains such as pollen and charcoal, within, beneath and around unexcavated or partially excavated examples. These deposits have the potential to provide information about the date of the monuments, ritual and funerary practices, and the structure of Neolithic society, while surviving artefacts and ecofacts would enhance understanding of contemporary economy, land-use and environment. Reports of kitchen midden deposit as well as a large quantity of burnt material and animal bones, and several pottery fragments, found adjacent to the cairn suggest the site has some form of secondary use, perhaps in the Iron Age. 

Contextual characteristics (how a site or place relates to its surroundings and/or to our existing knowledge of the past)  

Around 600 chambered cairns are known of in Scotland. This example is part of an architecturally-distinct subgroup known as the Orkney-Cromarty group, dating to the Neolithic period in Scotland.  The enclosing stone cairns of Orkney-Cromarty cairns are mainly round in plan, but some are short horned or long cairns and others heel-shaped. Their chambers are subdivided by upright slabs of stones (described as 'stalls'), demarcating burial space into separate compartments. It is the form of the chamber that defines the group (Richards 1992, 65).

These cairns have a widespread distribution across the north and west of Scotland in Orkney, Inverness-shire, Ross-shire, Caithness and Sutherland. Fifty-nine examples have been recorded in Orkney where they are the most widespread type of chambered cairn (Davidson and Henshall, 1989). Dating from around 3600-3200 BC, this type of cairn is the earliest phase of cairn development in Orkney and parallels the design of other stalled early Neolithic houses such as those at Knap of Howar (scheduled monument SM90195).

Chambered cairns are found in a variety of locations. Some are placed in conspicuous locations within the landscape, such as on the summits of hills or on the shoulders of hills, to be deliberately seen on a skyline, or otherwise seen in profile. Other factors that seem to hold significance are their relationship to routeways across and between different terrestrial and marine landscapes, a location near to good upland pasture, and views over specific areas of land (perhaps relating to different communities).  This example is the only chambered cairn on Faray and may represent the single focus for burial and ritual for an island community. Its location on a low sea cliff means that it would have been a prominent feature when viewed from the sea, which may have been significant in the choice of location (Noble, 2006).

Associative characteristics (how a site or place relates to people, events, and/or historic and social movements)

There are no known associative characteristics that contribute to this site's national importance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE ID 3184 (accessed on 8/10/2019).

Davidson and Henshall, J L and A S. (1989) The chambered cairns of Orkney: an inventory of the structures and their contents. Edinburgh.

Fraser, D. (1982) The Chambered Cairns of Orkney: Land and Society in the Third and Second Millennia BC, 3 vols, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Glasgow. Page(s): Vol.3, 55-7 (http://theses.gla.ac.uk/997/1/1982fraserphd.pdf - accessed 8/10/2019)

Henshall, A S. (1963a) The chambered tombs of Scotland, vol. 1. Edinburgh.

Griffiths, S. 2016. Beside the ocean of time: a chronology of Neolithic burial monuments and houses in Orkney, in Richards, C. & Jones, R. (ed.) The development of Neolithic house societies in Orkney: 254–302. Oxford: Windgather.

Noble, G. (2006) Harnessing the waves: Monuments and ceremonial complexes in Orkney and beyond. Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Vol1, Issue 1, pp 100–117.

RCAHMS. (1946) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Twelfth report with an inventory of the ancient monuments of Orkney and Shetland, 3v. Edinburgh. Page(s): 72.

RCAHMS. (1984d) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Eday and Stronsay, Orkney Islands Area, The archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series no 23. Edinburgh. Page(s): 20, No.81.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/3184/
https://canmore.org.uk/site/3184/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland