Description

The monument is the remains of three mounds, interpreted as burial mounds or barrows dating probably from the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The three turf-covered barrows are made of earth and lie in a row aligned roughly NW-SE. The barrow to the NW measures 13m in diameter and stands up to 1.2m high; a hollow, most likely from a previous excavation, is visible on its ESE side. The second barrow lies about 130m to the SE: it measures 12m in diameter and stands to around 0.7m. The third barrow is situated some 90m to the SE: this is the largest surviving barrow in the group, measuring 19m in diameter and standing 1m high. A steatite vessel is recorded as having been found in one of the mounds in 1890. The barrows sit on a SW-facing slope at about 50m above sea level, overlooking the Loch of Bosquoy some 1450m to the SW. The monument was first scheduled in 1949, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is three circles on plan, centred on the three barrows, 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.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its inherent potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of funerary practice in the Bronze Age. Earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's Bronze Age landscape. Despite minor excavations in the late 19th century, the barrows at Kingshouse retain high potential to preserve human burials and associated evidence, such as mortuary structures, funeral pyres and related activities, as has been discovered at similar sites elsewhere in Orkney. Orkney's Bronze Age barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, because the majority are mainly earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. They provide evidence for the significant changes which took place in society and funerary practice in the Bronze Age in Orkney. The significance of the surviving barrows at Kingshouse is enhanced by their association with other barrows nearby and their place in the wider prehistoric landscape. The Harray area is exceptionally rich in Bronze Age burial monuments, including an impressive barrow cemetery at Knowes of Trinnawin. Our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of Bronze Age barrows in Orkney would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY31NW 31

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, 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).

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, 28, no 66.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland