Description

The monument comprises the remains of three barrows dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The barrows are visible as low, roughly circular, turf-covered earthen mounds. The two northernmost mounds measure approximately 10m and 14m in diameter and stand 1m high. The third mound, which lies SE (downslope) of the northern pair, is approximately 10.5m in diameter and stands almost 1m high. This mound has been disturbed previously and the remains of a cist are partly exposed. The Knowes of Lingro are located within pasture land at about 65m OD, with views towards Costa Hill to the NE and Abune-the-Hill and Hundland Hill to the S. The monument was first scheduled in 1937, 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.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to make a significant addition to understanding of funerary practice in the Bronze Age. Earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's Bronze Age landscape. Despite the plough erosion, the mounds survive to a marked degree. By analogy with other excavated barrow sites in Orkney, these mounds have high potential to reveal further evidence for burials and funerary practice. Orkney's Bronze Age barrows provide evidence for significant changes which took place in society and funerary practice in the Bronze Age. They are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, because the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. The significance of the small cemetery at Knowes of Lingro is enhanced by its proximity to other barrows, and its place in the wider landscape of Bronze Age burial monuments located around the Lochs of Swannay, Hundland and Boardhouse. 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 21.

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.

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, 24-25, no 46.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland