Description

The monument comprises the remains of seven barrows dating probably from the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The barrows are visible as a series of sub-circular turf-covered earthen mounds, which vary in size from 3.5m to 9.5m in diameter and stand between 0.2m and 1.1m in height. The barrows are strung out over a distance of some 550m and may form a linear cemetery aligned roughly NNE to SSW. They occupy a ridge on sloping ground on the W coast of Rousay at around 80m above OD. The monument was first scheduled in 1935, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduling consists of four discrete parts. The southernmost is rectangular on plan, measuring 85m NNE-SSW by 35m transversely, and includes a cluster of three mounds. To the N is another rectangular area, measuring 70m NNE-SSW by 35m transversely, which includes two adjacent mounds. The remaining two areas lie further to the N and are both circular, 30m in diameter, each containing one mound. The scheduled areas 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 a stone wall that bisects the southernmost scheduled area.

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 the past, in particular 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. Knap Knowes is particularly notable because it comprises an unusual linear cluster of barrows. Earlier excavations have demonstrated that the mounds contain well-preserved funerary structures and human remains, as well as artefacts, such as pottery and stone tools, which may have symbolised the connections between life and death. The significance of Knap Knowes is enhanced by its association with other barrow mounds and other types of Bronze Age site in the near vicinity, which together form a rich landscape of Bronze Age funerary and domestic sites. Our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of Bronze Age barrows in Orkney and Rousay would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY32SE 21, 26,31, 32.

References

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 Unpublished report to Historic Scotland.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

Downes, J 1999, 'Orkney Barrows Project', Current Archaeology 165, 324-327.

Grant, W G 1937, 'Excavation of Bronze Age burial mounds at Quandale, Rousay, Orkney', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 71, 72-108.

Lee, D 2008, Quandale, Rousay: The Biography of a Landscape: An Interpretive Landscape Survey, unpubl MA Thesis, Orkney College.

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, 82, no 279.

RCAHMS 1982, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre, Orkney Islands Area, The archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series, no 16, Edinburgh, 17-18.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland