Description

The monument comprises the remains of at least nine burial mounds forming a barrow cemetery dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). Only three mounds are visible on the ground surface today, but eight were depicted on the Ordnance Survey first edition and nine were recorded by RCAHMS in 1946. All the mounds were roughly circular on plan and seven formed an arc around the W side of the largest mound in the group. Of the three upstanding mounds, the northernmost is 11m in diameter and stands 1.2m high; the central mound 4m to the SSE measures 15m in diameter and stands 2.2m high; and the southernmost mound, 25m to the S, is 6m in overall diameter and much lower at 0.4m high. The other recorded mounds are likely to survive as buried deposits and, by analogy with other barrow cemeteries, the remains of funerary pyres, shelters and cremation pits may survive around and between the mounds. Previous investigations have unearthed at least one cist. Part of the monument was built over during the Second World War to accommodate defences associated with the airfield. The monument is located within an enclosed paddock at approximately 45m above sea level, overlooking lower land to the NE and Inganess Bay beyond. The monument was first scheduled in 1940, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is irregular on plan 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 post-and-wire fencing, gates and the top 30cm of a metalled track 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 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 previous disturbances to the site, three of the mounds survive to a marked degree and, by analogy with other excavated barrow cemeteries, important archaeological deposits, including burials, are highly likely to survive below ground. Barrows provide evidence for the significant changes which took place in society and funerary practice in the Bronze Age; and 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. 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 HY40NE 5.

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).

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.

Lawrence, D 2007, 'Hillocks of Garth, Orkney (Kirkwall and St Ola parish), watching brief', Discovery Excav Scot 8, 142.

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, 161, no 417.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland