Description

The monument comprises the remains of a burial mound or barrow dating probably to the Bronze Age (between approximately 2000 BC and 800 BC). It is visible as a roughly circular, grass-covered earthen mound, measuring approximately 13m E-W by 12m transversely and standing to a height of 1.1m. The monument is located on hill pasture land at approximately 80m above sea level, on the SW slope of Hundland Hill, overlooking the Loch of Hundland and with long views to the W and SW. The monument was first scheduled in 1940, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan, 24m in diameter, 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 a post-and-wire fence crossing the SE edge of the mound to allow for its maintenance.

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 funerary practice in the Bronze Age. The burial mound retains its field characteristics to a marked degree, despite some antiquarian investigation (before 1880), which exposed a cist containing human bone and ashes. We know from recent excavations at similar sites that these monuments normally contain important artefactual and environmental information about their construction and use. Earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's Bronze Age landscape. Orkney's barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, because the majority are 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 this example is enhanced by its location in an area rich in burial mounds and other types of broadly contemporary monument, including some with which it is intervisible. Our understanding of the form, function and distribution of 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 HY22NE 19.

References

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, 25, no 49.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland