Category: Around the Ness

“To everyone’s surprise, the primary occupation of Wideford Hill was found to be represented by a series of structures or houses of timber construction.” Colin Richards and Andrew Meirion Jones.… Read more

By Sigurd Towrie A few weeks ago conversation at excavation HQ drifted from matters Ness and the Neolithic to apparent Viking Age runes found in the 1920s at the nearby… Read more

“Taking in an area of c.55 hectares, the remote sensing survey of land to the north of Bookan has been nothing short of revelatory.” Brend et al. Landscapes Revealed. (2020).… Read more

By Sigurd Towrie Although the Ness of Brodgar is best known for its Neolithic archaeology, the isthmus was a focus of activity throughout prehistory and history. The Ness complex was… Read more

Stand in the centre of the Stones of Stenness today and a short distance to the south-east, in the adjacent field, you will see a low mound. This is Big Howe, all that remains of a large Iron Age feature that once dominated an area 150 metres away from the stone circle. Read more

We bring this week to a close they way we started it – with another trail! This time we head to the west coast of the Orkney Mainland and take… Read more

“Having got across the low ground of Wasbister they had one very remarkable place to cross called the ‘Seean Burn.’ At this place there has been a great deal of… Read more

By Sigurd Towrie Lying around 110 metres (120 yds) downslope and south-west of the Ring of Bookan is the large Bronze Age barrow known as Skaefrue. The flat-topped, sub-circular mound… Read more

Although visitors can’t come to Orkney at present due to the Covid pandemic travel restrictions, we’re all looking forward to a time when things get back to some semblance of… Read more

“We know little about most of the mounds around the Ring, though the clustering is enough to demonstrate that proximity was important.” Mark Edmonds. Orcadia: Land, Sea and Stone in… Read more