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.…
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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…
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“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).…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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We were delighted to learn this week that the University of Aberdeen’s George Washington Wilson photographic archive is free to access online.
Operating from Aberdeen, on the Scottish mainland, in…
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Over the past few weeks, we have looked at expedient architecture - the idea that some Neolithic buildings were hastily built, perhaps dismantled or simply left to become ruinous. This is not restricted to structures.
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“…at the north-west end of the Bridge of Brogar is a large dilapidated tumulus, which appears to be the ruin of an ancient stone Pict’s castle; close by it are…
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“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…
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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…
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“As we passed the Bridge of Brodgar, we could dimly descry the Standing Stones of Stenness on the eminence but today looming in the darkness like a regiment of grim…
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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…
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“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…
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“…on the day itself, at the death of one year and the birth of the next, the sun drops onto the top of the Barnhouse Stone…”
Mark Edmonds. Orcadia: Land,…
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“A slightly different form of expansion may be present at Howe, Stromness, Mainland, where two buildings initially interpreted as a stalled tomb and mortuary house, due to the presence of…
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By Sigurd Towrie
Head north along the road parallel to the south-western shore of the Stenness loch and a single standing stone will be clearly visible on high ground to…
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By Sigurd Towrie
At some point in the Neolithic a small, multi-chambered structure was built on high ground at the north-western end of the Ness of Brodgar.
Today the Bookan…
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“The overall impression of Structure Eight is that of a large building drawing on certain elements of the house and transforming them into monumental proportions. In architectural form it continues…
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By Sigurd Towrie
For three centuries the Barnhouse settlement was dominated by a structure unlike any of the others in the village.
Labelled House Two by Prof Colin Richards, who…
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