Description

The monument comprises the remains of at least eight barrows dating probably to the Bronze Age (between 2000 and 800 BC). Three of the barrows (in the western field) are upstanding and visible as sub-circular, low turf-covered earthen mounds. The other five barrows (in the eastern field) survive either as very low rises or as buried archaeological deposits. The mounds vary in size from 6m to 16m in diameter and stand between 0.1m and 1.6m in height. The monument occupies SE-facing sloping ground, overlooking the Loch of Harray, at around 20m above OD. The monument was first scheduled in 1949, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area comprises two discrete oval-shaped areas, one in the western field and the other in the eastern field. The scheduled areas 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 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 addition to understanding of burial and funerary practices in Bronze Age Orkney. 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. Midhouse is notable because it originally included at least eight barrows forming a barrow cemetery, of which three are upstanding today, one of them particularly substantial. Its significance is enhanced as it is part of a wider funerary landscape, associated with other barrow mounds and Bronze Age sites on marginal land nearby. Our understanding of the form, function and distribution of Bronze Age barrows in Orkney would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or further damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY21NE 20.

References

Downes, J 1997, The Orkney Barrows Project survey results and management strategy (unpubl rep to Historic Scotland: ARCUS, University of Sheffield).

Downes, J 1999, 'Orkney Barrows Project', Current Archaeology 165, 324-329.

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, 263, no 706.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland