Description

The monument is the remains of six barrows forming a barrow cemetery dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The barrows are visible as low, roughly circular, turf-covered earthen mounds situated in two fields separated by a modern road (four lie W of the road and two E of the road). The largest lies at the SW edge of the group: this measures 22.6m in diameter and stands about 0.5m high. Another mound lies immediately to the NNE, about 5m away, measuring around 8m in diameter. A third mound stands about 5.5m to the NNE and is 10m in diameter. About 6m further to the NNW is a fourth barrow, measuring 11.5m in diameter. On the other side of the road, and about 65m NE of the largest mound in the group, there are two further mounds, the largest of which measures 16m in diameter. The other mound lies some 16m to the ENE and is 9m in diameter. This barrow cemetery occupies a broad, low ridge running W-E, situated at around 14m above sea level, overlooking the Loch of Harray. The monument was first scheduled in 1939, 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 road and 2m on either side of it to allow for its 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 funerary practice in the Bronze Age. Earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's Bronze Age landscape and are unusual in Scotland, and important within a British context, because the majority are earthen mounds as opposed to stone-built cairns. They provide evidence for significant changes which took place in society and funerary practice in the Bronze Age in Orkney. The significance of the Vetquoy barrows is enhanced by their association with other barrows nearby and their place in the wider landscape of Bronze Age burial monuments located around the Loch of Harray and N of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. 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 site as HY21NE 41.

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, 261-2, no 701.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland