Description

The monument comprises the remains of two barrows dating from the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The barrows are visible as two, roughly circular, turf-covered earthen mounds, about 110m apart. The mound to the W measures 13.8m in diameter and stands around 1m high. It is truncated on its NW side by a farm track running SW-NE. The larger mound, which lies to the ENE, measures 15.5m in diameter and stands up to 1.2m high. The monument occupies sloping ground at around 40m above OD at the neck of a promontory, overlooking the Bay of Isbister to the SW and the Bay of Puldrite to the ESE. The monument was first scheduled in 1936, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area comprises two circles on plan, centred on the mounds, 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 the post-and-wire fences along the farm road 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, and provide evidence for the major social and economic changes which took place during this period. Orkney's Bronze Age barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, as the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. Despite some previous disturbance, the barrows at Knowes of Euro retain their field characteristics to a marked degree and are clearly visible in the landscape. They retain good potential for the preservation of Bronze Age burials and related features. The significance of the Knowes of Euro is enhanced by their close association with other barrow mounds and Bronze Age sites on marginal land N of the Bay of Isbister. Our understanding of the dating, 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

Other Information

RCAHMS records the monument as HY41NW 5.

(Note that OS Mastermap appears to have placed the easternmost mound slightly too far to the S, which is why the scheduled area appears not to be centred on the mapped representation of the mound.)

References

Downes, J 1995, 'Linga Fold', Current Archaeology 142, 396-399.

Downes, J 1998, 'Varme Dale, Gorn (Evie & Rendall parish), survey and excavation of burial mounds', Discovery Excav Scot 70.

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, 82, no 281.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland