Description

The monument comprises the remains of six barrows dating probably from the Bronze Age (between around 2000 and 800 BC). The barrows are visible as two groups of low, roughly circular, turf-covered mounds. The NW group originally comprised at least two barrows, but only one is visible today, measuring about 20m in diameter and standing 0.7m high. This barrow was partly excavated in 1922 and contained a stone-lined pit and a cist without a cover stone. The SE group comprises five barrows, four of them arranged in a row aligned W-E, with an outlier 50m to the NE. One of the barrows in the row of four is notably larger than the rest, measuring 15m in diameter and standing 1.5m high. The other barrows range in diameter from approximately 6m to 9m, and in height from 0.3m to 0.5m. Four of the SE group of mounds were partly investigated in 1902-3 and found to be built primarily of earth and small stones. A short cist found in the SE side of the largest mound contained fragments of bone and ashes. A 'cavity' or pit in the adjacent mound to the E held a complete steatite urn, embedded in ash, containing burnt bones. Ash, fragments of bone and charred wood were also recorded from the other mounds examined. The monument is situated on a broad ridge at around 65m OD with excellent views towards the Loch of Harray. The monument was first scheduled in 1937, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

The scheduling comprises two separate areas. The first is circular in plan, 30m in diameter, centred on the centre of the surviving barrow to the NW. The second is rectangular in plan, measuring 120m WSW-ENE by 55m transversely, to include the five barrows in the SE group. The scheduled areas include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the construction, use and abandonment of the barrows 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 the top 30cm of the track to allow for their maintenance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its inherent potential to contribute to our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of Bronze Age barrows and barrow cemeteries in Orkney, as well as changes in burial practice and society in the Bronze Age. Earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's prehistoric landscape. Orkney's barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, because the majority are mainly earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. Despite minor excavations in the early 20th century, the Knowes of Trinnawin retain high potential to preserve human burials and, possibly, evidence of mortuary structures, funeral pyres and related activities, as has been discovered at similar sites elsewhere in Orkney. The significance of the surviving barrows at Knowes of Trinnawin is enhanced by their association with other barrows nearby and their place in the wider landscape. The Harray area is exceptionally rich in Bronze Age burial monuments, including an impressive barrow cemetery at Knowes o' Trotty about 1.6km to the SE, and another barrow cemetery at Hollands, about 2km to the NW. Our understanding of prehistoric ritual and burial practices in Orkney and across Scotland would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY31NW 40 and HY31NW 41.

References

Ashmore, P J 2003, 'Orkney burials in the first millennium AD'. In Downes, J and Ritchie, A (eds) 2003, Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the Later Iron Age, Balgavies: Angus, 35.

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

Downes, J 1997, The Orkney Barrows Project: survey results and management strategy (unpubl rep to Historic Scotland: ARCUS, University of Sheffield).

Hedges, M E 1979, 'The excavation of the Knowes of Quoyscottie, Orkney: a cemetery of the early first millenium BC', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 108, 130-55.

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, 26-27, no 58.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland