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 discovered and excavated the...
“[A]fter the establishment of settlement at Barnhouse the local landscape underwent a fundamental transformation by virtue of the spectacular display of monumentality embodied in Maeshowe, the Stones of Stenness and the groups of standing...
Antiquarian sketch has us wondering whether there might be more to the 5,000-year-old chamber than we see today By Sigurd Towrie Back in 2016, a nineteenth century sketch had us pondering whether there might...
By Sigurd Towrie (Part One here) Based on shared architectural elements, Maeshowe has given its name to a specific class of chambered cairn. Characterised by side cells branching off from a central chamber accessed...
“But the most remarkable tumulus in Orkney is situated to the north-east of the Ring of Stenness and is called M’eshoo or Meashowe (sic).” Lieutenant F. W. L. Thomas. Account of some of the...
“Each of the remaining pillars is about 18 feet above ground: one was lately thrown down, but has not been broken; three were, in the month of December 1814, torn from the spot on...
“At Stennis, where the Loch is narrowest, in the midle, having a Causey of stons over it for a bridge, there is, at the South end of the bridge, a Round set about with...
“The Ring of Bookan, in the same neighbourhood [as the Ring of Brodgar], appears to be a similar platform, but it is enclosed with an earthen vallum, and exhibits abundant traces of ruined works...
By Sigurd Towrie We finished last week with George Marwick’s claimed “old name” for the Ring of Brodgar – Howastedgarth. I first stumbled across it in 2012, in a transcription of a talk given...
“[In Stenness] beside the lake are stones high and broad, in height equal to a spear, and in an equal circle of half a mile.” Jo Ben. Descriptio Insularum Orchadiarum. c1529 By Sigurd Towrie...
By Sigurd Towrie In the late 19th century, a grassy mound on a headland jutting into the Stenness loch attracted the attention of one of the many antiquarians with their sights on Orkney’s suspected...
By Sigurd Towrie Most visitors to the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site will be familiar with Maeshowe. Few, however, will know that what appears to be an equally large chambered cairn stands...