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, turf-covered earthen mound, measuring 11.5m in diameter and surviving to a height of 0.9m, with a gently rounded top. The 1929 RCAHMS record indicates that it has been 'broken into at the top' in antiquity. The monument lies at the intersection between four fields, in agricultural land 15m above OD on a promontory overlooking the E shore of Loch Harray. The monument was first scheduled in 1940, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan and measures 20m 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. The scheduling specifically excludes the above-ground elements of all post-and-wire fences and gates to allow for their maintenance.

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. Orkney's burial mounds are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, as the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. Although this burial mound may have been disturbed in antiquity, it 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 burial mound at Ness has the potential to contain one or more burials and associated features, such as the remains of funeral pyres or mortuary structures. The significance of this mound is enhanced by its location within a wider landscape of Bronze Age burial monuments located around Loch Harray. Our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of Bronze Age burial mounds would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY21NW20.

References

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 , 32, no 83.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland