Description

The monument is the remains of a burial mound dating probably to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC) and two standing stones. The monument is visible as a mainly grass-covered earthen mound, measuring up to 12m NW-SE by 4m transversely and standing approximately 0.9m high. On top of the mound are two earthfast standing stones, around 1.5m apart with their major axes lying NE-SW. The NW stone stands approximately 1.2m high and is 65cm wide at its base, with a portion broken from the SE face. The SE stone stands 0.6m high, but part of the top of the stone has broken off and lies on the ground on the NE corner of the mound. A scatter of loose stones across the mound is probably the result of field clearance. The monument is located at around 70m above sea level, on the lip of a steep section of the SW-facing slope of a hill overlooking Loch of Boardhouse 1km to the SW. The monument was first scheduled in 1938, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan and measures 20m 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.

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 and ritual 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. The Stanerandy barrow has been diminished by ploughing, but was probably circular originally and of larger than average size. Excavation of similar sites elsewhere in Orkney demonstrates that the site has high potential to contain one or more burials and associated features, such as the remains of funeral pyres or mortuary structures, both within and around the mound. 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 importance of Stanerandy is enhanced by the erection of two standing stones on top of the mound, probably at a later date, and by its association with a wider landscape of Neolithic and Bronze Age burial monuments located N of Loch of Boardhouse in Orkney Mainland. Our understanding of the dating, form, function and distribution of prehistoric burial monuments would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HY22NE15.

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

Downes, J 1997, The Orkney Barrows Project survey results and management strategy. Unpublished report to Historic Scotland. ARCUS, University of Sheffield.

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, 22, no 35.

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

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/1768/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland