Description

The monument is the remains of a burial mound dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The monument is visible as an upstanding, circular grass-covered earthen mound. It survives to a height of approximately 1m and now measures up to 25m in diameter, but it has been spread by ploughing and was probably smaller in size originally. It occupies low-lying agricultural land at around 15m above OD, 1.4km NW of the coast at Bay of Isbister. The monument was first scheduled in 1939, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan and measures 36m in diameter. It includes the remains described above and an area around them 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 monument is of national importance because of its potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of funerary and burial practice in the Bronze Age. Burial mounds and earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's Bronze Age landscape, and provide evidence for the major social and economic changes which took place during this period. The Knowe of Lyron is a barrow of larger than average size. Although spread by ploughing, the mound retains its field characteristics to a marked degree and is a significant example of its type. Excavation of similar sites elsewhere in Orkney demonstrates that the Knowe of Lyron has high potential to contain one or more burials and associated features, such as the remains of funeral pyres or mortuary structures. Orkney's barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, as the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. The Bronze Age period saw a move away from the construction of large monumental structures housing communal burials over an extended timeframe, towards more dispersed communities and individual burial in barrows and barrow cemeteries. The significance of the Knowe of Lyron is enhanced by its association with a wider landscape of Bronze Age burial monuments located N of the Bay of Isbister and elsewhere in Rendall. Our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of Bronze Age barrows would be diminished if this monument were to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY31NE6.

References

Downes, J 1995, 'Linga Fold', Current Archaeology, 142, 396-399.

Downes, J 1997, The Orkney Barrows Project survey results and management strategy. Unpublished report to Historic Scotland. ARCUS, University of Sheffield.

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 p 84, No. 286.

Towrie, S 2013, The Knowes o' Trotty, http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/knowestrotty/> [accessed August 2013].

Source: Historic Environment Scotland