Description

The monument comprises the remains of a burial mound or barrow dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). It is visible as a low, roughly circular, earthen mound, which measures approximately 8m in diameter and stands 0.8m high. The burial mound is located on the coastal edge at the S end of Wood Wick, a natural bay in the NE of Orkney Mainland. It overlooks Gairsay Sound and has fine views to the N over the islands of Wyre and Rousay. The monument was first scheduled in 1936, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is a truncated circle on plan, 20m in diameter, 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 a post-and-wire fence 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. This example has suffered some coastal erosion, but excavation of similar barrows in Orkney has demonstrated that the surviving remains have high potential to retain important structural, artefactual and ecofactual evidence. Earthen barrows form an important and relatively widespread element of Orkney's Bronze Age landscape. Orkney's barrows 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 the significant changes which took place in society and funerary practice in the Bronze Age in Orkney. The significance of this example is enhanced by its proximity to the burial mound and settlement at Knowe of Midgarth, 170m to the SE, and because of its association with the wider landscape of Bronze Age burial monuments in this area of Orkney. 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 HY32SE 7.

ReferencesAshmore, P J 2003, 'Orkney burials in the first millennium AD'. In Downes, J and Ritchie, A (eds) 2003, Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the Later Iron Age, Balgavies: Angus, 35.

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, 82, no 277. Towrie, S 2013, 'The Knowes o' Trotty', http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/knowestrotty/ [accessed August 2013].

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/2246/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland