Description

The monument comprises the remains of two burial mounds dating probably to the Bronze Age (between 2000 and 800 BC). The monument is visible as two adjacent, circular, turf-covered earthen mounds of different sizes. The northernmost is approximately 15m in diameter and stands up to 0.7m high; part of a cist is visible in the SE side. The smaller mound lies approximately 16m to the SSE and is around 12m in diameter and stands 0.3m high. The monument occupies a conspicuous location on a low-lying ridge at 80m above OD, with seaward views to the W and NW over the bay of Mar Wick. The monument was first scheduled in 1940, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area consists of two conjoined circles on plan. The larger circle is centred on the northernmost barrow and measures 40m in diameter, while the smaller measures 30m in diameter. It includes 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 fence that crosses the monument.

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. Burial mounds and 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 barrows are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, as the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. The mounds at Knowe of Gairsty retain their field characteristics to a marked degree and are good examples of their type. The northernmost mound is larger than average and survives relatively intact; at least one cist has been recorded within this mound. Excavation of similar sites elsewhere in Orkney has demonstrated that these mounds have the potential to contain one or more burials and associated features, such as the remains of funeral pyres or mortuary structures. The significance of the Knowe of Gairsty mounds is enhanced by their association with a wider landscape of Bronze Age monuments located around Vestra Fiold and the west coast of Orkney Mainland, which has one of the most important concentrations of such monuments in Orkney. 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

RCAHMS records the monument as HY22SW 2.

References

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, 32, no 84.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland