Description

The monument comprises the remains of three burial mounds or barrows dating probably to the Bronze Age (between 2000 and 800 BC). The barrows are visible as a group of three, low, roughly circular, turf-covered mounds, sited in close proximity to each other in a curving alignment. The westernmost barrow is around 8m in diameter and stands only 0.1m high; the middle barrow is 10m in diameter and stands around 0.6m high; and the easternmost is 9m in diameter and stands 0.3m high. Several large stones on and adjacent to the middle mound may derive from burial structures, such as a cist. The mounds are located in improved grassland on the S shoulder of a hill overlooking Loch of Boardhouse, at approximately 60m above sea level. The monument was first scheduled in 1940, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is an irregular oval shape to include 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 the post-and-wire fence to the E to allow for its maintenance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to add to our understanding of burial and funerary practices in Bronze Age Orkney. 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. Despite some disturbance, the Hillhead barrows are notable as a small group of associated burial mounds which are likely to preserve a development sequence. Excavation at similar sites elsewhere in Orkney has demonstrated good levels of preservation of important evidence, including cists and other structures, human skeletal or cremated remains, and evidence of associated activities, for example, grave goods and ash from funerary pyres. The buried remains can also provide information about the dating, construction and use of Orkney barrows and the nature of the local landscape and environment when they were built and in use. The significance of this group is enhanced by its relationship with concentrations of nearby barrows and other ritual and funerary monuments in the wider landscape. Our understanding of the form, function and distribution of Orkney's Bronze Age barrows would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY22NE7.

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 1994, 'Excavation of a Bronze Age burial at Mousland, Stromness, Orkney', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 124, 151.

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).

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, 24, no 43.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland