Description

The monument is the remains of a chambered cairn, known as Cubbie Roo's Burden. It survives as a circular heather-covered mound approximately 15m in diameter and stands up to 1.3m high. This Orkney-Cromarty type of cairn has been investigated in antiquity, which has left a hollow in the centre some 7m across. Two orthostats visible in the hollow represent the remains of a burial chamber. Five orthostats were recorded by Henshall in 1959 and 1982, now presumably obscured by vegetation. She described them as: 'evidently two pairs of divisional slabs and the back-slab of a chamber which was entered from the S', but the outer part of the chamber and passage could not be traced. The monument is situated on a steep hillside 55m above sea level above the SE coast of Rousay, overlooking Wyre Sound. The monument was originally scheduled in 1935, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan, measuring 36m in diameter, centred on the centre of the monument. The scheduling 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 scheduled area specifically excludes the above-ground elements of a hydro-pole.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because it has the inherent potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the past, particularly the design and construction of burial monuments, and the nature of belief systems and burial practices in Neolithic Orkney. In Orkney, chambered cairns are an important component of the wider prehistoric landscape. They are often focal points and can inform our understanding of prehistoric land-use and social organisation, as well as burial practice. There is a particular concentration of chambered cairns in Rousay, with exceptionally high group value, which adds to the importance of Cubbie Roo's Burden. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the placing of such monuments within the landscape and the meaning and importance of death and burial in prehistoric times.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Other Information

RCAHMS records the monument as HY42NW 23.

References

Davidson, J L and Henshall, A S 1989, The chambered cairns of Orkney: an inventory of the structures and their contents, Edinburgh, 111, no 11.

Hedges, J W 1983, Isbister, a chambered tomb in Orkney, BAR British Series 115.

Henshall, A S 1963a, The chambered tombs of Scotland, vol1, Edinburgh, 194-5, fig 18.

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, 213, no 574.

Ritchie, A 1996, Orkney, 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage' series ed. by Anna Ritchie, Edinburgh.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland