Description

The monument is the remains of a barrow dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The barrow is visible as an upstanding, circular turf-covered earthen mound, measuring 16m in diameter and surviving to a height of 2m. The top of the mound has been disturbed in antiquity and a stone cist was found here in 1849. A number of stone slabs are visible near the central hollow of the mound, but it is uncertain if these are in their original context. The monument is located on low-lying land at the edge of farmland and moorland at around 50m above OD. There are hills behind it to the W and NW, but it has open views to the E towards the Bay of Isbister and Wide Firth. The monument was first scheduled in 1949, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan and measures 36m 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 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 contribution to our understanding of funerary and burial practice in the Bronze Age. 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. Black Knowe is a barrow of larger than average size. Although disturbed in antiquity, the barrow mound 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 Black Knowe has the potential to contain one or more burials and associated features, such as the remains of funeral pyres or mortuary structures. Orkney's barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, as the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. The significance of Black Knowe is enhanced by its association with a wider landscape of Bronze Age burial monuments located on marginal land N of the coast at Bay of Isbister in Orkney Mainland. Our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of Bronze Age barrows would be diminished if this monument were to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY31NE 5.

References

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

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 Unpublished report to Historic Scotland.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

Moore, H and Wilson, G 1995, 'Two Orcadian cist burials: excavations at Midskaill, Egilsay and Linga Fiold, Sandwick', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 125, 237-51.

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, 84, no 287.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland