Author: Max Fletcher

EXCAVATIONS ON BEHALF OF H.M. OFFICE OF WORKS AT
TAIVERSO TUICK, TRUMLAND, ROUSAY.

by   WALTER G. GRANT, F.S.A.Scot.

The discovery of Neolithic burial chambers at Taiverso Tuick in 1898 has been described by Lady Burroughs in a manuscript now preserved at Trumland House, and in our Proceedings, vol. xxxvii. pp. 73-82, by Sir William Turner. The discovery was an incident in the excavation of a sheltered site for a garden seat in a small mound, situated almost, but not quite, on the summit of a ridge which slopes up northward from the sea to 217.42 0.D. The mound was “about 4½ feet above the natural lie of the ground on its lower side and 2 feet on its northern side, and had a diameter of about 30 feet.” In the course of its excavation Lady Burroughs records first the exposure of “a neat, well-preserved, rough-built wall with uprights of stone slabs,” then the discovery of “three stone kists full of small bones, earth, and vitrifactions,” and finally the disclosure of a subterranean chamber. The latter has been fully described in our Proceedings, and the relics from it now repose in the National Museum. The similarity of its plan and contents to those of Unstan at once establish its character as a collective burial chamber of the type currently termed Neolithic. The “three kists” have disappeared, but as they appear to have contained cremated bones and to have “been built on a layer of earth about a foot thick” covering the lintels of the subterranean chamber, they may be regarded as Bronze Age intrusions.

The “neat wall with uprights of stone slabs” remained a puzzle to such antiquaries as have visited the site. The exposed strip of dry-stone walling terminating in upright slabs and concave to the south recalled the plan and masonry of the intact chamber below. But antiquaries were reluctant to believe that the two chambers were contemporary, since a two-storeyed burial vault would be unprecedented.

The provisional description of the upper chamber might therefore be amended by describing it as an oval truncated at the east end, with a horseshoe cell at that end and a second cell in the south wall. The latter cell is really little more than a passage 4½ feet long and about 2 feet wide continuing the line of the entrance passage and almost above the entrance of the lower chamber. For the first 1⅔ foot the floor of the cell is formed by lintel 3, beyond the latter’s south end by the lintels roofing the passage of entrance to the lower chamber. Even the innermost of these lintels is some 6 inches below the surface of lintel 3, so that most of the cell lies at a lower level than the main chamber. The deep inner part of the cell is roofed with two lintels, 2 feet 6 inches from its floor, but no lintel survives over that part which is paved by lintel 3. The rear wall of the cell is straight and vertical and not very effectively bonded into the side walls, so as to give rather the impression of a blocking.

The upper chamber was covered with a cairn bounded by an almost circular retaining wall. This is bonded into the wall of the entrance passage on the east. On the west side of the entrance, though a single surviving course of masonry carries on the line of the passage to the circumference of the cairn, the retaining wall only begins again west of a flat slab on edge set parallel to the passage wall and 1½ foot back from its line at the western corner of the entrance. Between the line of the west wall and this slab only rough blocking survived, so that there may originally have been a sort of recess on this side of the entrance. A second slab on edge is built radially into the retaining wall 16 feet farther west. Beyond the retaining wall a thin spread of stones extends for about 11 feet towards the summit of the hill to the north and west and 24 feet down hill on the south (Plates LXIII and LXIV, 1). No trace of an outer wall or peristalith could, however, be found, though a careful search for one was made at Mr Richardson’s request. However, a curious alley, clear of stones and roughly bordered with boulders (not building slabs), leads through the stony area to the base of the cairn’s wall on the west (Pl. LXIV, 1). It is possible that this is somehow connected with General Burroughs’s operations, though there is no evidence to support this contention.

The most striking fact about the lower chamber, not sufficiently emphasised in the original report, is that it is built entirely in an artificial excavation in the hillside, the masonry walls off chamber and passage being merely a lining to the crumbling rock and clay of the shaft. The excavation had been carried down by the tomb’s builders to a horizontal bed of fairly solid rock which actually forms the chamber floor. A quarried ledge of similar rock forms the basal course of the south wall, west of the entrance. The irregularly sloping rock-face of the excavation is also exposed under the benches of the terminal compartments and the northern stalls, the bench slabs actually reposing at the back on ledges of rock though supported in front by building, and in a gap of the passage’s western face, 2 feet 6 inches from the chamber. Here the rock lies 1⅔ to 2 feet behind the face of the passage wall some 2 feet above the floor, with loose stones lying between the back of the wall and the rock. By careful removal of a stone just below the first lintel in the north-east corner the natural clay capping the rock was found about 10 inches behind the wall-face (see Sections A-B and C-D  on  fig. 2).

The lintels of the roof too, while undoubtedly supported by the masonry walls, generally rest also on the solid ground beyond the limits of the original excavation. Lintel 1 (on the east) extends under the walls of the upper chamber well beyond the limits of the lower’s masonry walls. The enormous second lintel, 10 inches thick and over 9½ feet long, was proved to be embedded on solid clay at its northern end so that some 1¾ foot of its total length probably rests on solid ground. The sixth lintel likewise rests on the same solid clay ground as the end walls of the upper  chamber. A comparison of the plans will show how the upper chamber’s walls, even when resting on the lintels of the lower, are in most cases vertically above, not its masonry walls, but the walls of the original pit. The passage too must originally have been an open trench subsequently lined with masonry and lintelled over for a distance of 18 feet. Beyond the lintelled section the sloping walls of this trench cut in the solid are actually visible to-day. And at the mouth of the roofed section the uppermost 18 inches of masonry are carried round for some 1¼ foot on either side so as to abut against the sloping walls of the trench (Pl. LXIII, l).

Very little soil had percolated into the cell past the crude blocking, if such it were, and cleaning out revealed a horseshoe-shaped subterranean chamber hewn out of the rock and lined with most precisely and perfectly built masonry, and having an unlined rock-hewn entrance way leading into it from the south-west (fig. 3, below). Examination of the entrance showed that the chamber plan had been primarily hewn out of the natural rock, which is split off in layers approximately 1 inch thick, and suggests, at the downward sloping entrance, miniature steps. This entrance passage, 2 feet 3 inches long and widening from 12 inches to 2 feet 3 inches at the chamber mouth, has a flat rock floor, level with that of the chamber, and is now spanned by a single lintel stone 13 inches wide and 3 inches thick at 1 foot 9 inches from the floor, supported on the natural rock at it northern end and on a slab on edge at its southern end. This slab on edge, which suggests a door portal, has no counterpart on the north.

The group of vases from this intact chamber establishes the co-existence of typically North Scottish (Orcadian) Unstan bowls with classic forms of the Windmill Hill or British Neolithic A ceramic series. To this extent it justifies the contention that the culture of the chambered tombs of Orkney is a specialised variant of the more generalised Neolithic culture of these islands.

Extracted from

The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Volume 73, pp. 155-166 1938-39

Available in the Orkney Room at Orkney Library & Archive

AN ACCOUNT OF A CHAMBERED CAIRN AND CREMATION CISTS AT TAVERSOE TUICK,
NEAR TRUMLAND HOUSE, IN THE ISLAND OF ROUSAY, ORKNEY,
EXCAVATED BY LIEUTENANT-GENERAL TRAILL BURROUGHS, C.B., 0F ROUSAY, IN 1898.

by

SIR WILLIAM TURNER, K.C.B., LL.D., D.C.L., F.S.A. Scot.

In the month of May 1898 I received from Lieutenant-General Traill Burroughs, C.B., of Rousay, Orkney, a box containing some human bones and other objects which had been obtained whilst excavating a mound on his property of Rousay. From letters which General Burroughs has written to me, and from sketches made by himself and Mrs Traill Burroughs, I have compiled the following description.

The mound is situated on Flagstaff Hill, near his residence, Trumland House, and is known by the local name of Taversoe Tuick. It was about 4½ feet above the natural lie of the ground on its lower or southern side, and about 2 feet on the northern or upper side. It was circular at the base and had a diameter of about 30 feet. The surface was overgrown with heather, but with grass at the apex, and the bulk of the mound was composed of loose stones and earth.

The excavations were begun in order to make a summer-seat on the mound to face the south, which commands a fine prospect, and to be protected from the north and east. With this object a wedge-shaped block was cut out of the south aspect of the mound, and as that did not suffice for the purpose required, the excavation was carried further into the mound at the apex of the wedge, in the form of a semicircle. A rough stone wall was exposed near the north face of the mound, about a foot below the surface. It was built of flat stones placed horizontally, with an upright flat stone at each end, and the ends were 4 feet apart. The stone to the west was 33 inches in height and entirely concealed in the mound; that to the east was 41 inches in height, and its upper end projected into the grassy covering of the mound for a few inches, but it did not attract attention until its continuity with the concealed part of the stone was observed.

The excavation was then continued to the immediate south of this wall, when three stone cists in close proximity to each other and to the stone wall were exposed. One of the cists was situated at the foot of the tallest upright stone. Unfortunately they had been broken by the workmen before General Burroughs saw them, so that their exact dimensions cannot be given. The cists are described as “small,” and not more than from 1½ to 2 feet in length and breadth, but the length rather exceeded the breadth. They were constructed of undressed flat stones, and the cover-stones were about one inch and a half thick. They contained fragments of whitened bones, which General Burroughs is inclined to think had been contained in urns lodged in the cists. The cists had been built on a layer of earth about a foot thick; when this was removed, the stone roof of an underground chamber was exposed 4 feet 3 inches below the surface of the ground. The two upright stones and the foundations of the wall discovered earlier in the excavation rested on the roof of this chamber at its northern end. As the excavation proceeded this chamber was more fully exposed. Its roof was formed of five large lintel stones, the long axes of which ran north and south. They rested on the end and side walls, and varied in length, as far as visible, from 4 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 2 inches, and in breadth from 2 feet 1 inch to 3 feet. The middle stone was broken; the two on the east side were entire; of the two westmost stones, one was cracked in two, the other crumbled into flakes and had to be removed. The stones forming the roof were massive flags, which varied in thickness from 3 to 10 or 11 inches.

The chamber at its south aspect opened into a long passage, which ran to the south face of the mound, and ended outside the mound about 15 feet from the interior of the chamber. The earth which concealed it was from 1 to 3 feet in thickness, and was covered by strong heather, so that there was no indication on the surface of the existence of the passage. Where it left the chamber it was 3 feet 9 inches high and 2 feet wide, and about 12 feet from the chamber it diminished to 2 feet 4 inches in height and 1 foot 9 inches in width, and it seemed as if it was continued into a passage smaller in all its dimensions, which General Burroughs speaks of as a drain. About 2 feet 6 inches from the chamber a small recess was found in the west wall of the passage about 1 foot 8 inches above the floor of the passage. The long axis of the recess, 2 feet 4 inches, was parallel to that of the passage, its breadth was 1 foot 4 inches, its height was 11 inches. It was bounded by an upright stone built into the wall, which did not project into the passage. This stone was 2 feet 3 inches in height, 2 feet in breadth, and 6 inches in thickness.

The walls of the passage were formed of flag-like stones placed horizontally, and the passage was paved with flags about 1½ inches thick.

Immediately to the south of the barrier stone the broken half of a hammer-head of smooth grey granite (fig. 2), about 2 inches in diameter, was found, and not far from it a flake of flint, triangular in shape, which might have been used as a scraper. Somewhat further away from the barrier numerous broken portions of urns were seen on the floor of the passage, mixed with earth, black mud, and fragments of bone.

As the small cists found superjacent to the roof of the chamber had been broken by the workmen, and their contents in great measure scattered about before they were seen by General Burroughs, their exact condition before they were disturbed cannot, unfortunately, be stated in greater detail than has already been given. The specimens sent to me for examination were collected from at least two of the three cists, and in large part consisted of numerous fragments of bone, which from their greyish-white appearance, with, in some specimens, blackening of the cancellated tissue, and less frequently of the compact shell of the bone, had obviously been incinerated. Sometimes they were contorted, and had cracks extending into their substance. When struck, they had a metallic ring and were almost devoid of animal matter. As a rule, the fragments were so small as to make it impossible to state in most cases which bones of  the skeleton they had been parts of, though many of them were, without any doubt, from the long bones of the limbs; two specimens were, from their size and markings, obviously sections of the thigh-bones, two others were parts of ribs, another was a portion of a vertebra, several flat fragments had belonged to bones of the head, and the terminal phalanx of one of the fingers was also fairly well preserved. They were undoubtedly human bones from an adult, or possibly more than one full-grown person. A fragment of the dentary border of an upper jaw-bone was also recognised, which, from the small size of the alveoli for the lodgement of the fangs of the teeth, was apparently that of a child.

Many of the fragments of bone were attached to or even embedded in nodular masses of hard vitrified slag, the surface of which not unfrequently was smooth and iridescent. Some of the nodules were broken across and found to be hollow in the interior, as if from the presence of air cavities. From their appearance one was led to think that during the cremation of the bodies, so intense a heat had been generated that a slag had been produced, which had in many instances fused with the bones. Through the courtesy of Dr Leonard Dobbin, of the Chemical Laboratory in the University, an analysis of the slag has been made. It consisted of aluminium, calcium, magnesium, with small quantities of iron and potassium, and the salt radicals of phosphoric and silicic acids. As it required a bright yellowish heat to fuse the slag, it had obviously been originally produced at a high temperature.

Numerous fragments of broken pottery were mingled with the bones, so that the opinion formed by General Burroughs, that each cist had contained an urn, was without doubt correct. There can, I think, be little question that after cremation the incinerated bones had been deposited in an urn, which had been placed mouth downwards on a flat stone on the earthen floor of a cist of a size about sufficient to accommodate it. These cists were therefore cremation cists, and quite different in character from the short cists so frequently found in Scotland, in which an uncremated body had been buried in the bent posture. The urns had been broken into such small fragments that a restoration was impossible. The paste was unglazed and of a moderately coarse texture, and the outer surface was a light brick colour. Even the small fragments were proportionately heavy, so that there was probably a considerable percentage of iron in the clay which had been used to form the urn. I did not see incised lines on any of the fragments from the cremation cists.

In addition to the remains obtained from the cremation cists, General Burroughs forwarded to me objects lying in the underground chamber and the passage leading out of it.

As stated in the previous description, unburnt human skeletons were found in the chamber, one of which was bent upon itself, so that the chamber had obviously been used as a place of sepulture for unburnt bodies. It is greatly to be regretted that the bones which I received were so much broken, and the fragments, as a rule, were so small that it was impossible to reconstruct either the long bones or a skull. Fragments of at least five adult femora were recognised, which represented three individuals; portions of tibiae, fibulae, and an astragalus and a clavicle were also fairly well preserved. The skull was that of an adult, but from its fragmentary state it is not possible to say whether the proportions were dolichocephalic or brachycephalic. The left half of the lower jaw was preserved, and the true molar teeth were all in place and worn flat by use. From the slenderness of the clavicle and the comparatively feeble muscular ridges on some of the long bones, I am disposed to think that at least one of the skeletons had been that of a woman.

Both in the chamber and its passage stones were found which in part had fallen in during the excavation, and were of no archaeological interest. One stone has, however, attracted my attention. It is a flake, apparently, of sandstone, attenuated at one end into a sort of handle, and expanded at the other into a hammer-like head. Its length is 10½ inches and its greatest width 6¾ inches. The margins of the part which might have been used as a handle were comparatively smooth, and a hollow in one margin readily accommodated the thumb when it was grasped by the hand. It did not show any marks of chipping, as if made artificially, but was probably a natural flake, of convenient shape to be used as a tool.

Extracted from
The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,
Volume 37, pp. 73-82 1902-03

Available in the Orkney Room at Orkney Library & Archive

The records for Nearhouse, or Nears as it is better known, go back centuries with the first known tenant listed there as John Sabiston in 1654. There is a large gap in the Rousay records until they reveal Rowland Craigie farming the land there from 1785 to 1796. The next tenant was William Craigie (Rowland’s son, born in February 1785) from 1820 to 1823, and in 1829 Magnus Marwick and his wife Rebecca Craigie (Rowland’s daughter) were in residence. In 1841 Malcolm Corsie took over the land, and between then and the time he died, in 1877, the rent increased from £30 to £60. His widow Isabella Louttit remained and farmed the 60 acres arable, while stock grazed on the 150 acres in pasture. In 1888 Robert Mainland took over the land, still paying rent of £60, but with the 75 acres of Gurnadee grazings added to the farm’s quota. Between 1903 and 1932 Thomas Inkster farmed the land at Nears, and it was in 1932 that Robert Mainland bought the farm, his son John taking over after his death in 1951, and his son Robert taking over from him.

Let us go back to [almost] the beginning, and find out more about the folk at Nears through the ages.

Rowland Craigie was married to Janet Craigie, and they had three children: William, born in February 1785; Janet, born in May 1796; and Rebecca, born c1791. Janet married James Robertson of Hunclett in 1825, and Rebecca married a later tenant of Nears, Magnus Marwick [born 1795]. More on them below.

Magnus Marwick of Nears was born about 1760. He married Christy Craigie and they had five children all born at Nears: Rowland (1782-1859); Barbara (1782-1872); Isabel (1789-1841); Janet (1790-1867); and Magnus (1795-1879). It was this Magnus that married Rebecca Craigie, just mentioned above, and they had three children: Mary, born in October 1829; and twins William and Ann, born in April 1834.

Rowland Marwick [born 1782] married his first wife Anne Craigie in 1811 and they went on to have six children: Christian, born in October 1811 and went to Canada in 1854; Ann, who was born in July 1814; Magnus, born in September 1816 and went to Canada in 1854; Rebecca, born in October 1819; Mary, in December 1821; and Janet, who was born in May 1824. Anne Craigie died in 1825 and Rowland married his second wife Isabel Craigie on October 11th 1826. They had one child, James, who was born in August 1830. Rowland and family were on Wyre for the 1841 and 1851 census but were back at Nears, where he died in 1859. Isabel outlived him by 6 years. Christina and Magnus were in Canada by October 1854, having been allocated 50 acres of land, the north half of lot 33, Brant Township, Bruce County, Ontario. His cousin James Clouston farmed the southern half of lot 33. James was the son of David Clouston (weaver, living at Moan, Wasbister) and Janet Alexander (Barbara Marwick’s (sister of Rowland Marwick) daughter).

Malcolm Corsie was born in November 1798. He was the son of Hugh Corsie and Christian Sinclair of Faraclett. He married Isabella Louttit, daughter of William Louttit and Isabella Craigie of Faraclett, later, Skaill, Westside, who, like Malcolm, was born in 1798. They had five children; John, who was born in September 1828; William, born in August 1830; James, in August 1832; Isabella, in April 1835; and George, who was born in 1839.

Robert Mainland, who took over Nears in 1888, was the son of Nicol Mainland of Cotafea, later Banks, Frotoft, and Margaret Louttit, Faraclett. He was born in February 1846, was christened Robert Dennison Mainland, and married Margaret Baikie of Birsay. Robert and Margaret left the farm, and it was then taken over by Thomas Inkster in 1903. Thomas was the son of Hugh Inkster, Ervadale, and his first wife Isabella Kirkness, Quoyostray. He was born when the family lived in Shetland, later moving back to Rousay, where they settled at Westness farm. Thomas’s wife was Isabel McKinlay, from Egilsay.

Another Robert Mainland was farming the land at Nears in 1932. Robert was the son of John Mainland, Bu, Wyre, later Westness, and Isabella Stevenson, Kirbist, Egilsay, and he was born in 1900. He married Lydia Mary [Edda] Mainland, daughter of John and Betsy Mainland, Cott, who was born in August 1902. They had three children: John, who was born in 1930; Sheila, in 1932; and Rhoda, born in 1936. Son John took over the running of Nears after his father passed away in 1951. He married Irene Watson of Carnoustie, and they had two children; Ingrid, born in 1966; and Robert, who was born in 1969 – and Nears is in his capable hands now.

---

Robert and Edda’s daughter Sheila has been kind enough to
send me her memories of life at Nears which appear below.
My grateful thanks to Sheila and her son Graham Lyon,
Sandwick, for the text and their family photos – and to
Tommy Gibson who supplied all the others.

In 1932 Robert bought Nears from Tom Inkster and they moved in from Westness when Sheila was six months old and John was two. Rhoda was born in 1936 at Nears.

At that time they had two servant men (usually a boy and an older one) and a servant girl at Nears.

Hugh Marwick from Breek came over from Westness and Tom Inkster stayed on for six months. (Later Hugh was called up and writing from Ceylon saying how he was wishing he was still at Nears, eating Edda’s good oat bannocks).

As well as running the farm Robert and Edda took part in the social life in Rousay. Edda took an active role in the W.R.I. as secretary and president through the years and at the guild and church. Robert attended church faithfully, was an elder and session clark.

He was a J.P. and County Councillor for Rousay, Egilsay & Wyre until he died of a heart attack in January 1951 aged only fifty.

He was a very upright, good living and hard working man and we were told ‘a pillar of the community and would be a great loss’, as he was at home, a very sad time.

John, at only twenty, was left in charge but was lucky to have good men to help on the farm.

Sheila & Rhoda helped out too, after attending a course at Craibstone College, with the hen feeding, milking, cheese & butter making, singling turnips and building sheaves.

It was war years when we went to Frotoft school and had to carry gasmasks. I remember seeing planes swooping down on a target between Gairsay and Rendall. There were several mines came ashore below Nears which had to be defused and we were told to stay away from them. At Westness there were several bodies came ashore and were laid out on the couples in the byre until they were taken away to be buried.

At the time there were no tractors on the island and very few cars. On every farm was a stable with horse, numbers varied according to the size of farm. When the horse weren’t working they would often follow us feeding the hens, being very friendly and wanting a feed of oats out of the bucket.

The barn at Nears was a distance from the house and steading. The mill engine was run by water from the dam which was fed by the burn from the hill. We often helped at the threshing time by pulling in the sheaves to the mill and forking away the straw.

I remember one year a boat was left in the dam and we enjoyed rowing back and forth over the water. In the winter time the dam would freeze over and we could walk or slide on it. Every winter had snow and we had great fun sledging down the steep road. Nears was a wonderful place to grow up with its hills to climb and the shore to do all things – climb rocks, bathe in the sea, gather wilks or go fishing.

John & Sheila would often cycle over to Westness and stay for the weekend. Uncle John would take us out for long walks while he was attending the sheep. He would show us different kinds of birds’ nests and their eggs out in Quandale, also The Lobust, Scabra Head and The Sinians were looked on. Then it was back to a table laden with newly baked bere bannocks, ovenscones, pancakes, homemade butter, cheese and new laid eggs or stewed chickens.

One time we were walking out the middle road when the bull started snorting and coming towards us. Uncle Jim was there and got us under a brig for safety while he moved the bull. At the time a bull would only be on the bigger farms and they had to serve the visiting cows. It was the other way round with the horse and uncle Jim would visit other farms with the stallion.

At that time the blacksmiths were kept busy shoeing the many horses. The horses at Nears all had names such as Queen, Prince, Clyde and Jean. One time Rhoda went out to tell the ploughman to come in for tea. After unfastening (lousing) the horse Rhoda climbed on its back. The horse, startled, ran all the way back until it reached the stable door. Thankfully Rhoda bent down very flat on the horse’s back and all was well.

It would have been about 1949? when the first grey fergie arrived at Nears and the horse was made redundant.

Around 1954-55 John decided to put up a new barn, It was built by Stanley Gibson and John Inkster. The new barn was waiting for a celebration and in 1956 Sheila and Hugh married in Trumland Church and held the reception in it. John and Irene also celebrated in the barn on their silver wedding anniversary in 1989. It was through Rhoda that John met his future wife. Rhoda left home to start a career in nursing at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Irene from Carnoustie started at the same time and often came home with Rhoda on holiday. From there the romance started and they married in 1964. John took his wife home to a recently modernised house. It had been gutted out the previous year and made from a two storey with two bedrooms upstairs to a single story and an extension wing. The house was wired for electricity and a modern stove installed, which heated the water and house. Edda then retired from the farm and bought Avils but often returned to babysit. Ingrid was born in 1966 and Robert in 1969. Another generation was growing up at Nears with their own stories.

LONG STALLED CAIRN AT BLACKHAMMER, ROUSAY, ORKNEY.

by J. Graham Callander, LL.D., F.S.A.Scot., Director of the National Museum, and Walter G. Grant, F.S.A.Scot.

Before this cairn was excavated it was just an oblong heap of stones covered with a growth of grass and heather, more suggestive of the ruins of a little farmhouse than of what it turned out to be, one of the most interesting of the stalled chambered cairns so far excavated in Rousay. It stands on a small flat shelf on the steep hillside rising immediately above the north side of the road which runs round the island, at an elevation of 200 feet above sea-level, about 450 yards north-west of the steading on the farm of Nears. The mound measured 78 feet in length, 34 feet in breadth, and 5 feet in height. Just above it, on a higher terrace, are the foundations of an old house called Blackhammer, after which we have named the monument.

The cairn, which is oblong with rounded ends and slightly convex sides, measures 72½ feet in length and 27 feet in greatest breadth (Pl. V). The upper part of the monument had been taken away to provide building material, so that its general height at present is about 5 feet (fig. 1). Its main axis runs about west by north and east by south.

When the outer face of the monument was laid bare it was found to be greatly reduced in height; at the east end it was 1 foot 8 inches high, at the west end from 2 feet to 2 feet 3 inches, along the north side generally 1 foot 6 inches, but near the east end only 6 inches; on the south side, from 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches remained, rising to 3 feet 6 inches towards the west end. But, though only a fragment of what it must have been originally, it displayed features that had never been noted before in any Scottish burial cairn. One peculiarity was that no signs of an entrance passage into the burial chamber could be found, although this was carefully searched for – however, it was discovered later when the burial chamber was examined; another peculiarity was the way in which the stones had been laid – it was quite different from anything hitherto recorded.

The foundation course of the outer wall consists of a single row of flag-stones which project a distance of 3 inches from its face, so as to form a plinth similar to that seen in the stalled cairn, the Knowe of Yarso, which lies only 1000 yards to the west. For a short distance at the ends of the cairn the stones are laid horizontally, in the ordinary way, above the foundation, but along the sides the face of the wall shows a unique method of building. Though the stones are still laid on their flat faces, they are set not horizontally, but obliquely, forming a series of stretchers slanting down from right to left, and the adjoining ones from left to right, the result being a design of alternate hatched triangles (fig. 2) which recalls the decoration seen on some of the pottery found in the Unstan cairn. As in other stalled cairns which have been excavated in Rousay, and in the horned cairns examined in Caithness, the wall is double, the inner part being faced with ordinary building. This inner face has been traced at various places round the cairn and still maintains a height up to 3 feet 9 inches above the foundation; the interval between it and the outer face varies from 3 feet to 5 feet 4 inches on the sides, and 7 feet 3 inches at the west end, where there is a vacancy between the outer part of the wall and the face of the inner part.

As we have seen, when the outer wall was cleared of fallen material, no trace of the entrance passage could be detected, but this was discovered later on when the debris which filled the burial chamber was removed. It is placed on the south side of the monument and runs into the third compartment of the chamber from the east end. The reason that its mouth could not be found was that it had been carefully sealed up by a wall 5 feet thick, in the building of which care had been taken to lay most of the stones in alignment with the slanting stones of the outer face of the cairn wall (fig. 3); the inner face of this packing is rather roughly built, and has two rudely made steps (fig. 4) at the foot. The passage is 9 feet 9 inches long and 2 feet 6 inches wide. Its walls are now no more than 3 feet 6 inches high, the upper part, together with the lintels with which it was roofed, having been removed.

The burial chamber or gallery measures 42 feet 6 inches in length and from 4 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 6 inches in width, while the present height of the walls ranges from 2 feet 1 inch to 5 feet 1 inch on the south, and from 3 feet 2 inches to 4 feet 10 inches on the north side. The gallery is divided into seven compartments by upright divisional slabs set on end, in pairs opposite each other, and bonded into the lateral walls, leaving a space between the inner edges to allow passing from one cell to another, so that there are seven small stalls on each side (fig. 5). Four of the divisional slabs have been dragged out, two from both sides of the stall on the north side of compartment No. 5, and two from the stall on the south side of compartment No. 4. The upright divisional stones are dressed roughly flat on the top, and are from 2 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 11 inches high on the north, and from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 6 inches on the south side. Their thickness varies from 2 inches to 8 inches and the extent of their projection from the walls from 14 inches to 1 foot 11 inches.

A considerable number of relics were found amongst the debris – the fallen stones and earth – with which the burial chamber was encumbered. These consisted chiefly of animal bones, which were generally mixed through the debris, but they were most numerous at the eastern end of the gallery. Very few were found in the opposite end west of the entrance. In all likelihood this mixing had taken place when the upper parts of the monument were being removed in late times, and when the larger stones were being dragged out. We found that the same thing had occurred when the stalled cairn, the Knowe of Yarso, was being despoiled. The result was that stratification was not to be expected, except, perhaps, at the floor level.

Amongst the bones scattered throughout the debris at the upper levels and chiefly in cell No. 1 were those of sheep, ox, red deer, pink-footed goose, and cormorant. In the bottom layer were the remains of sheep, ox, red deer, and gannet. Many of the bones showed signs of burning or scorching.

The long, stalled cairns of Rousay and other Orkney islands have generally been so much despoiled that we have no idea of what their original height was, and we can only imagine how the roofs were finished off. They must have been distinctly higher than the tallest of the divisional slabs between the stalls, which in the case of the Midhowe Cairn was 7 feet 6 inches. As for the form of the roof, it would naturally be carried up to form a curved top with the stones being laid on the slant to throw off rain-water. In the round cairn on Wideford Hill, which has three concentric walls, even though it is greatly disturbed on the top, the stones have been laid slanting downwards towards the outside.

The opinion has been expressed that these long cairns had been finished off by heaping soil over them, but surely no people were going to erect buildings with such striking architectural features with the intention of hiding them under a screen of soil. If any argument against this is necessary it has only to be noted that the Knowe of Yarso is built practically parallel to the edge of a ragged cliff, too close to it in places to provide a wide enough foundation for a covering of soil.

REPORT ON THE ANIMAL BONES

by Margery I Platt, M.Sc., Royal Scottish Museum.

The animal remains from Blackhammer constitute fragments of the skeletons of domestic species principally, although relics of the Red Deer (Corvus elaphus, L.) are also present, together with a few bones from birds of the sea common in these islands. In most cases the fragments are small and too broken to classify with certainty. Ribs of domestic stock are most numerous, and the relics throughout show evidence of fire. Sheep remains predominate, whilst oxen and red deer are represented in equal proportions.

The bones submitted appear to be derived from two layers designated “Top” and “Bottom” Layers, and the various species found in each of these are cited in order of their numerical importance. Most of the bones were found in cells Nos. 1 and 2, the larger number being found in the former.

 Top Layer.

Sheep. – Many lower jaws with teeth indicate sheep of a large size. No horn-cores occur, and therefore it is impossible to determine the breed. From the lower jaws it is possible to estimate the number of animals in this section. There are six right mandibles with full adult dentition, four left ones from immature sheep, whilst twelve permanent lower molars found singly make it certain that at least six other sheep were present. In all, this indicates a minimum of sixteen individuals, of which one-quarter are immature. Limb bones and ribs, all fragmentary, complete the relics of this species.

Ox. – In addition to a fragmentary scapula and terminal phalange, the whole of the bovine remains comprise broken pieces of rib. It is therefore quite impossible to ascertain the breed represented or the actual numbers present.

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus). – The remains of this species, as in the case of the ox, are almost entirely composed of fragmentary ribs. They vary in size and thickness, indicating that young and old deer occur, but no estimate of their number can be given. There is a single piece of antler of medium size.

Birds. – The bird relics include the wing-bone of a pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus, Baillon) and the pelvis of a cormorant (Phala-crocorax c. carbo (L.)).

Chamber 1 – Bottom Layer.

Sheep. – Sheep remains in this section are again the most plentiful. Fragments of left mandibles prove the presence of at least eight sheep. All the dentitions were adult. Other skeletal remains of this kind indicated full-grown sheep of large size, although evidence of the actual breed could not be found.

Ox. – Bovine relics were not so numerous as sheep. Fragments of ribs, limb bones, and pelvis composed the majority of the remains. No definite breed, in the absence of horn-cores, could be recognised.

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus). – The remains of this species were as equally numerous as those of the ox. Fragments of ribs were again plentiful. A few ulnae, a good sacrum, and three pelvic bones also occurred. In no instance was there any indication that the deer differed in size from those of the present day.

Bird. – Two pieces of the wing-bone of a Gannet (Sula bassana) were the sole avian relics at this level.

REPORT ON THE HUMAN REMAINS

by Professor Alexander Low, M.D., F.S.A.Scot.

Bones found in Chamber No. 7.

The fragmentary human remains include: Supraorbital part of frontal bone with marked ridges; some 6 pieces of rather thick parietal bone; pieces of left upper and lower jaws with 2 molars and 2 premolars in upper jaw and 2 molars and 1 premolar in lower jaw, crowns much worn down, but powerful teeth; fragments of right side of male pelvis; fragments of right and left femur. One adult male skeleton.

Bones found in Entrance.

The only skull-bone represented is a fragmentary lower jaw and some teeth; 13 fragmentary vertebrae; left half of a pelvis probably male, and pieces of sacrum; some 16 fragmentary ribs, amongst which can be identified a right first and a second left; fragments of right and left scapula; right and left clavicle; fragments of left humerus and of right and left radius; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th metacarpals of right hand and 4 proximal phalanges; upper two-thirds of right femur; pieces of shafts of right and left tibia; 2 pieces of shafts of fibula and lower third of a right fibula; fragmentary talus and os calcis. Numerous fragments but no duplication. One adult male skeleton.

Extracted from
The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,
Volume 71, March 8th 1937 pp. 297-308

Available in the Orkney Room at Orkney Library & Archive

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Hunclett – or ‘Hooklet’ as it is pronounced – was first mentioned in the old Orkney Rentals, dating back to 1492 with subsequent volumes ranging through the 1500s. In those days it was known as Ovir [or Upper] and Nether Howclet, the former, according to Hugh Marwick, is represented by the Hunclett we know today, and the latter being identified by the present farm of Nears, or Nearhouse – a name which is simply a running together of an older ‘Nether-hus,’ i.e. of Hunclett tunship. These rentals were primarily tax-rolls, which showed the various skats or taxes due to the Earls or Bishops from each farm or tunship, and in addition, in the case of property lands belonging to the earldom or bishopric, the annual rents due from the tenants in occupation. Orkney lands were valued in terms of early Norse money – as ouncelands and pennylands. The old Norse silver mark was sub-divided into 8 ounces and in Orkney the ounce was divided again into 18 pennies. Thus we find Orkney lands valued as urislands [i.e. ounce-lands) and pennylands – 1 urisland consisting of 18 pennylands. Trumland was a two-penny land, while Nether Howclet was a four-penny land, and Ovir Howclet a three-penny land – the three together amounting to a second half-urisland.

Hunclett was tenanted by Hugh Craigie in 1734 and by Hugh Robertson in 1799. The land, 19 acres arable and 42 acres pasture, was farmed by 40-year-old James Robertson in the 1840’s. He was born in March 1799 and was the son of Hugh Robertson and Christian Sinclair. In February 1825 he married Janet Craigie, the daughter of Rowland and Janet Craigie of Nears, who was born in 1796, and they had six children: James, born in December 1825; Mary, born in October 1827; Margaret, in September 1830; John, in January 1832; another James, who was born in July 1835; and William, born in 1838. At this time James was paying £8 rent, which rose to £16 in 1862 and £30 in 1877.

By 1881, son James [born 1835] was head of the household at Hunclett. For a number of years he’d been at the fishing, but now he was farming the 62 acres of land. In February 1869 he married Jane Walker Marwick, the daughter of Alexander Marwick and Isabella Gibson of Corse, and they had six children, five girls and one boy: Isabella was born in 1869; Mary, in 1872; Hannah, in 1876; James, in 1879; Maggie, in 1882; and Lydia Ann, in 1886.

James’ wife Jane died in 1909 at the age of 65, and was interred in St Mary’s, the Westside kirkyard. James himself died in Kirkwall in 1913, in his 78th year, and was laid to rest in St Magnus Cathedral kirkyard. By that time Hunclett had passed into the hands of William Low and his wife Betsy. William, son of William Low and Janet Mainland of Castlehill, was born in 1868. He married Betsy McKinlay of Sound, Egilsay, and they had a daughter, Lily, who was born in 1898.

Alexander Craigie of Turbitail and his wife Rose Ida Gibson were later occupants of Hunclett. Alexander, born in 1882, was the son of Magnus Craigie and Ellen Couper of Falquoy, later Pliverha’, and he married Rose Ida, daughter of David Gibson and Ann Sinclair latterly of Hullion. They had one son, Douglas, who was born in 1914.

All photos from the Tommy Gibson collection

[Reference was made to Hugh Marwick’s Place Names of Rousay in the opening paragraph]

Castlehill in Frotoft consisted of three houses, built by James Low for Nearhouse tenant Malcolm Corsie at no cost to the island’s estate in about 1840. Hereabouts was an adjacent field named Ulie Bogie. According to Hugh Marwick in his Place-Names of Rousay the field was perhaps so-named due to its resemblance to the shape of a ulie bogie, a skin vessel for containing oil. The first residents on record here, according to the 1841 census, were 35-year-old Ann Mainland, and 75-year-old pauper Cirstan Sinclair.

At this time James Low lived in one of the houses at Irso with his wife Christina Hourston of Harray and their 4-month-old daughter Barbara. His parents and siblings occupied another house on the same site, but it was not long before the families moved to other premises.

In 1851 James’s father William Low was a seventy-year-old agricultural labourer and lived at Castlehill with his wife Barbara Marwick and their three sons, 31-year-old William and 26-year-old Hugh who earned their living as shoemakers, and 16-year-old John who was still at school. This family lived at Grinnabreck on the Westside before moving to Irso.

James and his ever-growing family had moved to Quoyjenny, a now-vanished house just above Hunclett. He and Christina had six children: Barbara, born in 1841; Jemima, in 1843; James, who was born in October 1848; Margaret, in 1850; William, in March 1852; and Mary, who was born in April 1854.

Toomal is a generic name, surviving as a place-name for a field, and an example of this is the Toomal o’ Quoyjenny. In the old days of the run-rig system, a toomal was the name for a patch of ground which was not shared in common with the rest of a tunship, but was the perpetual perquisite of an individual house in the tunship. Each tunship house had its own toomal, and as such, it received the best of the available manure, and thus became especially fertile.

By the time the census of 1871 was carried out William Low had passed away. Brothers William and Hugh had married, though 51-year-old William was already a widower, his wife Janet Mainland of Crusday having passed away in 1867. He lived at Castlehill with his children Margaret, Jessie, and William, as did his brother Hugh and his 28-year-old wife Ann, who was a midwife. They had two children, Johanna and Hugh. The youngest of the Low brothers John, now 36 years of age was also making a living as a shoemaker there, and their mother Barbara, then in her 76th year, made ends meet by knitting stockings.

Come the census of 1881, shoemaker brothers William and John still lived and worked at Castlehill, but their brother Hugh and his family had emigrated to America. James by that time was in his 64th year and a widower himself. He had moved out of Quoyjenny and was living at ‘Low’s House’ in Frotoft with 30-year-old daughter Margaret and her 26-year-old sister Mary. In 1873 Mary married James Corsie, son of Malcolm Corsie and Isabella Louttit of Nears, but he died in Kirkwall at the age of 42 – his son James Sinclair Corsie being born six months after the father’s death.

Quoyjenny [spelled Curjinny in the census return] at this time was occupied by 62-year-old Rebecca Marwick and her 56-year-old sister Janet, both unmarried, and both employed as agricultural labourers. They were the daughters of Rowland Marwick and Anne Craigie of Nears. It was not long after this that Quoyjenny was demolished.

At the turn of the century former dressmaker Margaret Low had moved from Low’s House and was boarding at Grain, Wasbister, with Hugh and Isabella Marwick and their family. James Low, by then 84 years of age, had moved with his daughter Mary, living at Lower Banks in Frotoft [where Yorville is today]. That left John Low, then a 66-year-old retired shoemaker, and Margaret M Corsie, a 37-year-old widowed dressmaker living under separate roofs at Castlehill. Margaret was William and Janet Low’s daughter, and had married William Corsie of Lower Crusday, but he died in 1899 at the age of 42.

Other vanished houses in this vicinity were Crody and Germount.

Crody was a dwelling close to Castlehill and Germount above Nears in Frotoft, and its first known occupant was James Costie in 1829. In 1841, Janet Marwick, described in the census as a pauper, and her 12-year-old son John lived there. She was the daughter of Rowland Marwick and Anne Craigie of Nears and was born on May 20th 1824. She and her elder sister Rebecca lived at nearby Quoyjenny in 1881, and in 1891 Janet was back at Crody with another elder sister, Mary.

Germount was an old house above Nears in Frotoft, alternatively known as Cathole. In 1841, 25-year-old straw plaiter Ann Marwick lived there, as did 65-year-old pauper Barbara Craigie. Another tenant was William Logie, a 45-year-old farmer, who lived there with wife Janet and eight-year-old son William. Living with them was Cirstan Craigie, a 90-year-old pauper.

In 1851 Barbara Craigie still lived at Germount, but the census put her age at 82 and she was employed as a spinner of wool. The only other tenant there then was Hugh Mainland, a 29-year-old agricultural labourer and fisherman. He was the son of William and Sicilia Mainland of Banks at Sourin, born on April 15th 1822. He married Margaret Craigie of Watten, Egilsay, and they had three children; Mary, born in 1847, John, born in 1851, and Eliza Craigie, who was born in 1855, but she died at the age of six.

The house was spelt Geramount in the census of 1861, and was occupied by 30-year-old ploughman William Corsie and his family. He was the son of Malcolm Corsie and Isabella Louttit of Nears, born on August 24th 1830. In 1853 he married 20-year-old Ann Leonard, daughter of Peter Leonard and Isobel McKinlay of Digro. Between then and 1860 they had five children; Margaret, Annie, William, Malcolm, and James.

William earned his living as a master tailor, and between 1862 and 1877 he and Ann had produced another eight children; Peter, George, John, Charles, Frederick, Jemima, Jessie and Isabella – a grand total of thirteen offspring.

By 1891 the Corsie family had moved to Brendale and ‘Garmount’ had a new tenant. He was James Marwick, a 66-year-old general labourer. He was the son of James Marwick and Christian Groundwater, and was born on December 13th 1824. He married Eliza Allan, of Greentoft, Eday, in 1854, and between 1856 and 1876 they raised a family of eight children: James Groundwater, Mary Mainland, Jemima Elizabeth, John Craigie, Charles, Eliza, Isabella, and Maggie Ann.

Crusday, Upper, Mid, and Nether, were dwellings situated on the hill slope above the public school at Frotoft.

David Mainland was one of three brothers who were born in Frotoft, in 1770 or thereabouts but whose parents are not on record, the other brothers being William and Alexander, and they lived at Tratland. William featured in the recent page regarding his ‘Trafalgar Medal.’

David married Margaret Sinclair and between 1795 and 1808 they had eight children; William, who was born in January 1795; Mary, in June 1796; Robert, born in May 1798; Barbara was born in December 1799; James, in June 1802; Ann, in November 1804; Jean, who was born in October 1806; and finally David, born in May 1808. It is evident David’s wife Margaret passed away at the time of, or soon after the birth of the youngest child.

In 1811 David married Marion Mainland of Cotafea and between 1812 and 1821 they had four children; Alexander, born in September 1812; Hugh, in January 1814; John, who was born in March 1819; and lastly Betty, in April 1821. Alexander, and either Robert or James, his older step-brothers, were drowned off Scabra Head with James Sinclair of Newhouse in 1825. It was James’ son, also called James, who drowned when the Rousay post-boat capsized in Eynhallow sound in 1893.

The census of 1841 records David Mainland as a retired 70-year-old farmer. He had moved from Tratland, and was living at Upper Crusday with wife Marion and their 35-year-old son John, who was employed as a carpenter.

David Mainland’s younger brother Alexander and his family lived at Lower Crusday in 1841. Alexander was a 55-year-old farmer, and was married to Janet Kirkness, daughter of James Kirkness and Ann Harrold of Wyre, who was born in 1810. A daughter Janet was born on October 13th 1836, and on February 23rd 1839 they became the proud parents of triplets, James, Margaret, and John. Another son William was born on July 30th 1841.

Alexander Corsie and his family were the occupants of Nether Crusday. In 1851 Alexander was a 32-year-old carpenter. He was married to Ann Sinclair, daughter of John Sinclair and Magdalene Craigie of Tratland, born on February 20th 1817, and they had three children, Isabel, John, and William.

Come the census of 1861 we find David and Marion Mainland’s son John living at Upper Crusday. By this time 42-year-old boat builder John was married to Lydia Mowat of Scowan, daughter of John Mowat and Isabel Yorston, who was born in 1829. They had nine children; Hugh, born in February1854; John, in September 1855; Mary, in October 1857; Jane Hughina, in March 1860; Janet, born in October 1862; Duncan, in May 1865; Betsy Craigie, in February 1867; Isabella, in August 1869; and lastly Lydia Ann, who was born in June 1873.

Living at Mid Crusday at this time was another John Mainland, with his widowed mother Janet [wife of the late Alexander Mainland], and his sister Janet who earned her living as a dressmaker. In 1865 John married Margaret Craigie, daughter of  Magnus and Christie Craigie of House-finzie, Sourin, and they had two children, Mary and John Corsie. John married again – this time to Mary, the daughter of Hugh Gibson and Margaret Harcus, who was born in December 1835 when they were living at Geo, Westness. They had no offspring, and were living at Ervadale in 1891.

The 1891 census tells us Alexander Corsie, and his wife and son, were still living at ‘Crusdy’. Farmer/wheelwright and U.P. church officer Alexander was 73 years of age at that time; his wife Ann was 74, and their son William was a 34-year-old joiner. William later married Margaret Low, Irso, who was born in 1857, and they are pictured below.

Living at Mid-Crusdy was James Harrold, a 71-year-old mason and shoemaker, and his 52-year-old wife Margaret. James was the son of Alexander and Marabell Harrold of Wyre, later Boray, Gairsay. His first wife was Bella Gibson, daughter of Hugh Gibson of Burness and Janet Marwick of Cogar, and she was born in August 1821 when they were living at Newark. Bella and James had four children; Ann, Margaret, John, and James. Then James married Margaret Mainland of Crusday [one of the triplets].

Ten years on [1901] and James and Margaret had grandson James living with them. At that time he was a 19-year-old joiner apprentice. New folk at Crusday though. Rural postrunner, 38-year-old Donald Baillie Mackay from ‘Gairsay, Evie & Rendall’ was in residence with his new wife Mary Reid Mainland, then 28 years of age. She was the daughter of John Mainland, Cotafea, and Mary Reid, Wasdale. In his latter years John lived with Mary and Donald at Crusday. Donald, or Danny as he was known, was a postman in Rousay for many years, passing away in October 1943 and interred in the Brinian kirkyard.

[All the above photos are from the Tommy Gibson collection]

This ornate clock was given to Danny Mackay on his retirement as postman. The inscription reads:

PRESENTED TO MR D MACKAY
BY THE PEOPLE OF WASBISTER.
In recognition of his long and faithful services as Postman.
30th March1923.

[Photo courtesy of Graham Lyon, Sandwick]

Two houses in Frotoft that vanished long ago.

Cluik was an old house in Frotoft near the much larger houses of Banks and Newhouse, its earliest known occupant being Gilbert Reid. In a Sasine* dated 1627 it was known as ‘Clouk in Bankis,’ and Clouk and Cluick in the Rousay Birth Register in 1741, when George Marwick was the tenant at this time. *[Scottish legal term for the action of giving legal possession of feudal property, and also, the instrument by which the possession of feudal property is proved.]

In the early 1800s Hugh Marwick and his family lived at Cluik. He married Mary Yorston in 1808 and they had six children, five girls and one boy. Mary was the firstborn, on November 18th 1808, followed by Isabel, born on September 14th 1810, Betty, on August 16th 1812, Barbara, on March 18th 1815, William, on January 31st 1818, and finally Janet, who was born on August 29th 1820.

The only mention of this house in any census of Rousay occurred in 1841 when it was spelt Cluk. Living there at that time was Robert Yorston, a 35-year-old described as living independently, his 30-year-old wife Margaret, and children, three-year-old Alexander and Hugh, who was 12 months old.

Newark was the name of a dwelling between those of London and Lower Cruseday in Frotoft. In 1841, 70-year-old miller John Pottinger lived there with his 75-year-old wife Janet.

In 1851 Isaac Costie, a 38-year-old miller, his wife Catherine Craigie [36], who was born in Egilsay, and their three children Helen, born in 1842; Isaac, in 1845; and William, who was born in 1849, were the occupants.

Young Isaac was nineteen years of age when he moved to Kirkwall in 1864 where he worked as a shoemaker. He married Jemima Helen Robertson in April 1870, and come the time of the 1881 census Isaac’s profession had changed to that of police constable.

He was living in Main Street with his wife and five children: Jemima, Elizabeth, Mary, Robina, and Isaac, who at that time was just 10 months old. Isaac rose through the ranks and was appointed Sheriff’s Officer, later becoming a Bar Officer in succession to Thomas Hutchinson. He resigned in 1926 at the age of 81.

A STALLED CHAMBERED CAIRN, THE KNOWE OF RAMSAY,

AT HULLION, ROUSAY, ORKNEY.

by J. Graham Callander, LL.D., F.S.A.Scot., Director of the National Museum
of Antiquities of Scotland, and Walter G. Grant, F.S.A.Scot.

In the last two issues of the Proceedings, vols. lxviii. and lxix., we gave an account of the excavations of two Neolithic, long, stalled, chambered cairns of the Rousay type, the Midhowe cairn and the Knowe of Yarso. Both of these constructions had an entrance passage at the eastern end leading into a long, narrow, rectangular gallery or chamber, which was divided into small cells or compartments by upright slabs projecting from the lateral walls. The chamber in the Midhowe cairn was divided into twelve cells, and from the Neolithic level were recovered remains of twenty-five human skeletons, a small number of animal bones, fragments of seven clay urns, and a solitary flint implement, a well-made knife. The Knowe of Yarso had only three cells, but it produced, also from the Neolithic deposit, fragments of twenty-nine human skeletons, a large quantity of animal bones, almost entirely representing red-deer, a few bone tools, and sixty-nine implements and worked pieces of flint. No Neolithic pottery was found, but a few fragments of a Bronze Age food-vessel and two other pieces of pottery came from the top of the relic bed; no doubt these had been intruded at a time later than the primary burials.

In June last (1935) we excavated a third cairn of the same class, the Knowe of Ramsay. This monument is built about 12 yards from the southern edge of a narrow shelf or terrace, some 50 yards wide, on the lower south-western slope of Blotchnie Fiold, at an elevation of about 200 feet above sea-level, barely a quarter of a mile east of the post-office at the hamlet of Hullion. To the south it overlooks Eynhallow Sound and the island of Mainland beyond, and, like the Knowe of Yarso, before it became dilapidated and covered with grass and heather, it must have formed a very prominent feature in the landscape when viewed from the lower ground.

The Knowe of Ramsay had been very much plundered to provide stones for building houses in the immediate vicinity, and all that remained was a long irregular mound of stones over-grown with grass, measuring 113 feet in length, 27 feet in breadth, and 5 feet in height, with a number of slabs set on end peeping through the surface of a hollow that ran along the summit. These indicated quite clearly the character of the monument, a stalled cairn. Excavation showed that its destruction had been more thorough than that of the Knowe of Yarso, which was bad enough.

After its outline had been cleared of the accumulation of soil and broken stones with which it was encumbered, the cairn was seen to be an irregular oblong on plan, with the north-west end rounded, and the sides and south-east end, in which is the entrance to the burial chamber, generally straight (fig. 1). Its main axis runs about 40° magnetic west of north and east of south, or about north-west and south-east. The entrance passage leads into a long, narrow chamber divided into fourteen cells by slabs set on end and bonded into the walls on both sides. These uprights are placed in line opposite each other so as to form a row of stalls on both sides of the chamber, similar to those seen in the Midhowe and Yarso cairns (fig. 2).

Outer Wall. – The face of the outer wall is formed of ordinary dry-stone building, but, as already remarked, it is now very much reduced in height. At the south-east end it is only 1 foot 9 inches, which height is maintained for about 30 feet along the north-east side; after this it decreases to about 14 inches until it approaches the north sector, where it has been entirely removed. At the north-west end only from 8 inches to 15 inches remain. Along the south-Western side it rises from 3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 2 inches, then decreases to 2 feet 4 inches, and as it gets nearer the south-east end the height is no more than 14 inches. The foundation course does not project outwards beyond the wall face as in the Midhowe and Yarso cairns.

There is a re-entrant angle, 6 inches deep, in the wall on the north-east flank of the cairn, 30 feet from its south-east end, and eastwards from this point there is a disturbed face of building extending for about 20 feet. The reason for this is not clear, as at a distance of from 6 inches to 9 inches in advance of it is a course of foundation slabs in alignment with the other parts of the outer wall. At first it was thought that, as in the other two stalled cairns in Rousay which already had been excavated, there was an inner built face in the thickness of the wall, but no such feature was found in other parts of the cairn, though searched for. Near the re-entrant angle, however, is a vertical joint, and opposite it on the face of the wall on the south-west flank are indications of another. But these joints cannot be traced through the building into the walls of the chamber. Possibly there may have been a change in the plan after the work of building the cairn had been started.

Some 4 feet 9 inches from the south-east end of the north-east side of the cairn is a wall or ramp built against it at right angles, and extending outwards for 7 feet 9 inches. It measures 2 feet 6 inches in breadth, and from a height of 2 feet 9 inches slopes down gradually until it dies out. On the west side, in the angle where it abuts on the main building, there is a recess, the lintel of which is 16 inches above ground-level, measuring 10 inches in height, 10 inches in breadth, and 7 inches in depth.

Outside the western sector of the cairn is a casing wall about 21 feet in length, 4 feet 9 inches in breadth at the centre, and 2 feet in breadth at its southern end; it is carried round in the opposite direction as far as the middle of the north-west end of the cairn, into the wall of which it gradually merges (fig. 3).

Entrance Passage. – The outer jambs of the entrance passage into the burial chamber are placed 6 feet and 7 feet 5 inches from the north-east and south-east corners of the monument. The passage measures 6 feet 5 inches and 6 feet 2 inches in length along the north and south sides, and 1 foot 8 inches in width. The walls on both sides where they enter the chamber are 2 feet 4 inches high and a few inches lower at the outer end. The height of the passage cannot be ascertained, as all the stone lintels with which it would be roofed have been carried off.

Burial Chamber. – The total length of the chamber is 88 feet, and its inner end, which is formed by a large slab set on edge and measuring 2 feet 10 inches in height and 5 feet 1 inch in breadth, terminates 8 feet 8 inches from the face of the outer wall at the north-west end. The fourteen cells into which it is divided increase in width, though not quite regularly, from the entrance towards the inner end, from 3 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 8 inches, and their length, which is not exactly the same on both sides, varies from 3 feet 11 inches to 7 feet 2 inches (fig. 4). In the same way the projection of the divisional slabs from the walls shows considerable irregularities; it ranges from 7 inches to 1 foot 9 inches, and the gradation is not regular but haphazard. For example, the slabs on the sides of compartment No. 5 on the north side project 1 foot 9 inches and 1 foot 4 inches respectively, while those in the stall on the opposite side project 1 foot and 9 inches. The lateral walls of the chamber, as in the Midhowe and Yarso monuments, are not correctly aligned, there being a difference of 1 inch to 3 inches in the projection of the east and west faces of some of the slabs. They measure from 1 inch to 5 inches in thickness and from 2 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 9 inches in height. The distance between the inner edges of the pairs of uprights in the eastern half of the chamber ranges from 1 foot 8 inches to 1 foot 11 inches, except between cells Nos. 4 and 5, where it is only 1 foot 1 inch. In the western half the variation is from 1 foot 8 inches to 2 feet 7 inches. Generally the tops of the upright flags are fairly level.

Near the south-west corner of compartment No. 5, about 9 inches from the adjoining divisional slab, was a small stone cist of pentagonal plan, the wall of the chamber forming one side. It measured 14 inches in length and 10 inches in breadth at the bottom, but as two of the slabs on the north side slanted outwards at the top it was 20 inches long and 18 inches wide at the mouth. The depth was 18 inches, and the floor was rather more than 1 foot higher than that of the chamber. No relics, human or otherwise, were found in the cist.

While the Knowe of Ramsay is a good example of the distinctive, long, stalled, chambered type of Neolithic cairn, which so far has been recognised only in the Orkney Islands, it differs in some respects from the other three which have been excavated in the island of Rousay. The outer wall is quite plain, ordinary, dry-stone building, with the stones laid on bed and the foundation course in line with it, while in the other three the wall exhibits decorative motives. The Midhowe cairn has a stepped plinth for a foundation, above which the lower part of the wall shows the stones laid obliquely in one direction for some distance and in the reverse direction for the remaining portion. The upper part, which is set back a few inches from the lower and is separated from it by a string course, has the stones built in the opposite direction. In the Yarso cairn and in one at Blackhammer, which was excavated this summer, the foundation course projects a few inches, and in the first the stones are built obliquely in the same direction along the flanks and round one end, and in the second they are set so as to form a pattern of reversed triangles, recalling some of the designs on Orkney Neolithic pottery.

In a distance of less than two miles on the naturally terraced slopes of Blotchnie Fiold, overlooking Eynhallow Sound, there are five Neolithic cairns: Taiverso Tuick, a two-storeyed example; the Knowe of Lairo, a long-horned cairn; and the three stalled cairns just mentioned. On the seashore, within two miles and a quarter to the north-west, is a stalled cairn at Midhowe. A long, stony mound at Rowiegar a few hundred yards south-east of Midhowe; the Knowe of Lingro towards the north-western corner of the island; a mound near Bigland in the north-east corner; and the Knowe of Craie in the Sourin Valley, though much dilapidated, exhibit surface features suggestive of their belonging to the stalled type of cairn. But they await excavation before their true character can be determined. In some of the islands to the north-east of Rousay there are other ruined cairns that in all probability belong to the same type. One, on the Holm of Papa Westray, described in our Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 62, and figured on pl. iii., certainly is a stalled cairn.

Most of the cells, Nos. 3 to 11, had a certain amount of rude paving mostly on the north-east side, but in No. 5 it was carried across to the opposite wall.

Signs of burning were observed in all the cells from No. 6 to No. 11, sometimes on the lateral walls and occasionally in the centre.

Very few artifacts were recovered during the excavation. There were only a bare half-dozen of small shards of reddish ware; the biggest was no larger than a shilling, and consequently it was impossible to determine the character of the pottery. These were found in cells Nos. 2, 5, and 6. The only other relics were six pieces of flint, one a poorly made scraper and the others splinters. These were all calcined except one.

Human bones were scarce and very much broken or decayed. The remains consisted of those of an adult, probably male, from cell No. 3, of an elderly male from No. 5, and two fragments of an arm and a leg bone from No. 8. The bones were not cremated, though several of those from cell No. 5, like some of the animal bones found, were scorched, presumably by the fires that had been lit in the burial chamber after the remains had been deposited there. One of the skeletons exhibited signs of chronic rheumatism, such as have been so often observed on other Scottish prehistoric skeletons.

Bones of animals were numerous, and there were a few of birds and one of a fish. They included red-deer, sheep and ox, great auk, bittern, cormorant, curlew, duck, sea or white-tailed eagle, pink-footed goose, and conger-eel. Many of the animal bones were broken or splintered, and some, as we have seen, were scorched.

We should like again to express our thanks to Mr James K. Yorston and his son James for the care and intelligence displayed in examining the cairn, and we are grateful to Professor Low and Miss Margery I. Platt for examining the human and animal remains found.

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REPORT ON THE HUMAN BONES FROM KNOWE OF RAMSAY, ROUSAY, ORKNEY.

by Professor Alex. Low, M.D., F.S.A.Scot.

The human bones are very fragmentary and mixed with numerous pieces of animal bones.

Cell No. 3. – The only human bones are the fragments of an adult, probably male, skeleton, represented by: 2 fragments of sacrum; heads, and the much eroded lower ends of right and left femur, 2 fragments of shaft of femur; fragments of upper and lower ends of a left tibia; fragmentary astragalus and internal cuneiform of a right foot.

Cell No. 5. – The human skeletal remains in this cell, while fragmentary, are evidently those of an adult male advanced in years; the bones show evidence of chronic rheumatism, and, further, several of the bones have been blackened by fire.

The skull is represented by fragments of the flat bones and a rather imperfect lower jaw; there are 2 cervical vertebrae; 10 rather imperfect thoracic vertebrae; and the fourth and  fifth lumbar vertebrae very much affected by rheumatic changes; the body of the sternum and the remains of 10 right and 6 left ribs. Of the upper limb there persist fragments of both shoulder blades, a third of right clavicle, a fairly complete right humerus, lower end of a right radius, upper thirds of both ulnae; of the hands there are 2 wrist bones and the remains of 3 right and 4 left fingers. Of the lower limb there remain a fragment of the right hip bone, an imperfect right femur, the head and a piece of the shaft of a left tibia; of the right foot there remain the astragalus, os calcis, cuboid and internal cuneiform, as well as the 4 inner metatarsals; of the left foot a fragmentary astragalus and 4 metatarsals.

Cell No. 8. – The only fragments of human bones are the lower third of a left humerus and a small fragment of a shaft of femur.

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REPORT ON THE ANIMAL BONES FOUND IN THE CHAMBERED CAIRN, KNOWE OF RAMSAY, ROUSAY, ORKNEY.

by Margery I. Platt, M.Sc., Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh.

The animal remains found in this cairn, excavated during the summer of 1935 by Mr. Walter G. Grant and Dr. Graham Callander, form interesting additional evidence of the animals connected with early man on Rousay to those found the previous year at the Knowe of Yarso. The bones, associated again with human remains, appear to be, strange as it may seem, the fragmentary portions of food animals with perhaps the exception of one of the birds. As in the case of the Yarso cairn, skeletal remains of the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus, L.) are the most numerous. Apart from the abundance of the latter species, resemblance between the relics of the two burials ceases. The difference between these will be dealt with more fully later. Few bones approach being intact, the majority being extremely broken up, and were so probably at their initial accumulation. This suggests some reason for their fragmentary state, such as the purposeful extraction of marrow or the use of bone splinters as tools, etc. In most cells of the cairn some bones were calcined or charred, and the few pieces of deers’ antlers which occur all seem to have been treated by fire, and this may account for their sparse numbers. The various species of animals represented by the bones in the individual cells are noted below.

Cell No. 2. – The most numerous relics occurring here were those of the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus, L.). Mature animals of a medium size were represented together with young ones as evinced by the presence of numerous milk molars and under-sized ribs. Almost as plentiful as the Red Deer were the remains of sheep, which appear to be of a slender and horned variety. The majority of these bones were from mature sheep. Ox bones took third place in importance – their remains being but very scanty. Many of the larger bones of both deer and ox were split and broken in various ways, possibly for the extraction of marrow. In this cell there was little evidence of calcination. Two bird bones occurred—the humerus of a Cormorant (Phalacrocorax c. carbo, L.) and the ulna of a Gannet (Sula bassana, L.), together with the shell of a common periwinkle (Littorina littorea, L.) from the shore.

Cell No. 3. – Very fragmentary remains of the Red Deer predominated here, representing both young and adult animals. Sparse indications of ox and sheep were also found. The majority of the bones were split and calcined, the greater part being the merest fragments too small for identification. No bird relics were present in this section of the cairn.

Cell No. 4. – Bones of the Red Deer again exceeded in numbers those of any other species, their remains being indicative of young as well as mature animals. Ox and sheep were equivalent in numerical importance. All the material was broken up and of little comparative value. The humerus of a Gannet (Sula bassana, L.) occurred here, and also the lower jaw of a conger eel (Conger vulgaris, Cuv.). The latter is the only relic of piscine nature found in this excavation.

Cell No. 5. – Bones of old and many young Red Deer occurred here, milk molars being especially numerous. Two fragmentary burrs of antlers were present, from separate individuals since they differed considerably in thickness. The latter, as also many of the broken bones, were calcined. In addition to the remains of Red Deer, only two broken ribs of an ox were present and the tibio-tarsus of a Cormorant (Phalacrocorax c. carbo, L.).

Cell No. 6. – Red Deer were represented by almost every bone of the skeleton, though the presence of only three animals could be identified. Ox remains were very scarce, there being rib fragments only, whilst sheep were again unrepresented. The coracoid of a Sea or White-tailed Eagle (Halicetus a. albicilla, L.) was the only bird bone. Calcined and split bones were numerous.

Cell No. 7. – Bones of the Red Deer were again the most abundant, the species being represented by remains from adult and young animals. It is impossible to estimate the number of individuals, owing to the extremely broken state of the fragments. Part of a reasonably large tine was found here. A few sheep bones occurred of a species quite indeterminable. Ox relics were also very scarce and consisted principally of split long bones and broken ribs. Apart from the mammalian species only three bird bones remain to be recorded. These were: the ulna of a Bittern (Botaurus s. stellaris, L.); the humerus of a Cormorant (Phalacrocorax c. carbo, L.) and the humerus of a Gannet (Sula bassana, L.). Many bones had been calcined or split for extraction of marrow.

Cell No. 8. – This cell contained more animal relics than any other. There is, too, an increase in the number of bird species. Excepting the latter fact, the proportion of species one to another does not differ materially from that of the cells previously described. Red Deer was again predominant, and among the numerous remains of this species the only cannon bone approaching completeness was found; its measurements are recorded below:

Metacarpal of Red Deer:

Maximum length – 25.5 cms.
Maximum width of proximal end – 3.1 cms.
Maximum width of distal end – 3.5 cms.
Minimum width of shaft – 2.1 cms.

Numerous milk molars, also bones from small immature and fully grown deer in almost equal quantity occurred. Of the adults the majority of the remains indicate deer rather larger than those of the present day, and of decidedly good size for island stock. From the evidence of a particularly large rib head, one deer at least was of enormous size, comparable with the large prehistoric deer of the mainland of Scotland, whose remains are occasionally found in the peat mosses. In this part, too, the third molars of sheep were particularly plentiful, showing the presence of many mature animals. Among the sparse bovine remains is a good metatarsal, indicating an ox of small and slender proportions. Measurements of this bone are given below, together with the corresponding data, for comparison, from the skeleton of an ox of small Shetland race stored in this Museum.

Metatarsal of Ox:

Maximum length – Ramsay, Rousay, 23.8  cms – Shetland, 20.9  cms.
Maximum width of proximal end – 4.58 cms – 4.43 cms.
Maximum width of distal end – 5.59 cms – 4.93 cms.
Minimum width of shaft – 2.74 cms – 2.5   cms.

From the figures it is seen the two oxen were of similar build, the Ramsay specimen being slightly larger. Split bones form a goodly proportion of these mammalian remains and there is some evidence of calcination. Eleven bird bones present in this section represent six species. These are: the Curlew (Numenius a. arquata, L.), the Gannet (Sula bassana, L.), a Duck whose species is undetermined, a Swan, in all probability the Whooper (Cygnus c. cygnus, L.), the Cormorant (Phalacrocorax c. carbo, L.) and lastly the Great Auk (Alca impennis, L.) which was probably quite common in Orkney during certain seasons, at the time when these remains were assembled.

Cell No. 9. – In this cell the bones of Red Deer and sheep occurred in about equal proportions. In kind and condition they resembled those of the foregoing sections. A few ox remains, chiefly ribs, were also present here. The bird relics consisted of the broken ulna and humerus of a Gannet. (Sula bassana, L.) and the carpo-metacarpus of a Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus, Baillon).

Cell No. 10. – Red Deer was the most abundant species here, the remains represented young and adult animals similar to those previously described. Sheep and ox bones occurred but in very small numbers. The former species was represented by molar teeth only, and the latter by two rib fragments. Split and broken bones occurred as usual, but there was little evidence of calcination. The humerus of a Gannet (Sula bassana, L.) was the only bird relic.

It will be gathered from the previous notes that in every section of the cairn the remains of a presumably wild animal, the Red Deer, exceeds those of the domesticated species. This was the case in the Knowe of Yarso, the contents of which were examined last year, with this difference, however, that here at Ramsay domesticated breeds are definitely present, whereas at Yarso they were so sparse as to indicate possibly an accidental occurrence. The significance of Red Deer in a prehistoric structure in Rousay was commented upon in a previous publication (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. lxix, Sixth Series, Session 1934-1935, p. 343), and these notes give further confirmation of its occurrence in this locality. Regarding the number of Red Deer typified by the whole of these remains it is quite impossible to estimate exactly because of their very imperfect nature. Taking a right calcaneum as an index, it is certain that there were at least fourteen, and in all probability were actually many more than this.

It is apparent from the species of birds represented that these, too, were of food value to the early inhabitants of Rousay. The species occurring most often is the Gannet, which was used for food extensively in the past and up to recent days still contributed a staple diet for islanders, such as St Kildans. The flesh of the Garefowl or Great Auk was, in addition, greatly prized by fishermen and coast-dwelling tribes in the past. The inclusion of remains of this last species is interesting as indicating no doubt a period when this now extinct, and for many centuries diminishing, species must have been common in the northern islands. The same might be said of the Bittern, and perhaps also of the Sea Eagle which is much less extensively distributed than at one time not many years past. Although these early natives of Rousay appear to have been hunters and herdsmen rather than fishers and of sea-faring habit, judging by the paucity of fish remains, a conger-eel, perhaps caught stranded in the rocks, would afford an acceptable though accidental addition to the usual food supply, but this point should not be stressed too much as shell-fish, which could be easily obtained, were represented by a solitary periwinkle.

Further, to the remains recorded under the separate sections above are a handful of the shells of the garden snail (Cepaea hortensis, Müller) which occurred in Cell No. 5. These may be of archaeological value since they have been recorded in holocene deposits from various localities from time to time. Alternatively, they are of widespread occurrence in the British Isles to-day and may have been included in comparatively recent soils.

My thanks are due to Mr Grant and Dr Callander for kindly submitting the material to me for examination, and also my gratitude to the former gentleman in permitting me to include in the collection of sub-fossil bones at the Royal Scottish Museum these remains which may prove of comparative value at some future date.

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[Extracted from the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 70, pp. 407-419, May 11th 1936. Available in the Orkney Room at Orkney Library & Archive.]

A LONG, STALLED CAIRN, THE KNOWE OF YARSO, IN ROUSAY, ORKNEY

by
J. Graham Callander, LL.D., F.S.A.Scot.,
Director of the National Museum of Antiquities,
and Walter G. Grant, F.S.A.Scot.

In many parts of the island of Rousay the land rises from the shore in a series of shelves or flat, narrow plateaux, exposing, in places, a face of much weathered flagstone rock of the Old Red Sandstone formation. On the south-western slopes of Blotchnie Fiold, the highest hill in Rousay, 821 feet high, which lies in the south part of the island overlooking Eynhallow Sound, these shelves are prominent features in the landscape, as will be seen in fig. 2. In the area known as Frotoft, about 500 yards slightly east of north of the standing stone on the roadside at Langstane, and about 480 yards west-north-west of the farm of Mid Crusday, at an elevation of 300 feet above sea-level, was a mound of stones overgrown with heather and grass, known as the Knowe of Yarso, and marked on the 0.S. Map as a broch. However, it was a cairn erected close to the outer margin of a shelf, which is about 50 yards wide at the spot, and is bordered by a rocky escarpment about 30 feet high. As the edge of the rock is jagged, in parts there was only room to pass between it and the cairn, and at no place was the side of the structure more than 12 feet distant from the brink. To the south the monument commands a magnificent view of the island of Mainland and of many others, from the mouth of Eynhallow Sound on the west to the island of Stronsay on the east. Before excavation it was quite evident that this was a stalled, chambered cairn of the same class as the Neolithic cairn at Midhowe, lying about 3 miles to the north-west, described last year in the Proceedings, vol. lxviii. p. 320, because the tops of three pairs of erect slabs set in alignment across the structure, dividing the chamber into three compartments, projected above the debris with which the interior was encumbered. However, it differed from the Midhowe cairn inasmuch as it was shorter and had been destroyed in a different fashion. At Midhowe the roof had collapsed before the structure was despoiled in later times, and even then the stones which had fallen into the chamber had not been removed. At Yarso the superstructure of the monument had been carried away for building purposes, and all the large stones which had fallen into the central cavity had been dragged out, with the result that there was more soil amongst the debris than at Midhowe, and the relic bed on the floor with its contents was much disturbed.

The mound, which was rectangular with rounded ends, measured 62 feet in length, 32 feet in breadth, 6 feet in height at the north-west end, and 4 feet at the south-east, but the cairn proper within the accumulation of soil and debris is 50 feet long and 25 feet 6 inches in greatest breadth. The main axis lies 45° west of north magnetic, approximately north-west by west and south-east by east. The sides are nearly straight, the four corners and the north-west end rounded, and the south-east end, where the entrance is placed, straight.

This cairn bears a striking resemblance to the Midhowe mausoleum both in its internal and external structural features. The chamber in each monument is divided into stall-like compartments by flagstones set on end opposite each other on both sides, only, while there are twelve compartments or cells at Midhowe, there are but three at Yarso (fig. 1 above). In both the inner cell is subdivided, and there are indications that there had been an upper storey at the farther end. It will be remembered that at Midhowe there is a face of walling within the mound, and that the outer wall is built with the stones not placed on the flat, but with their outer edges lying obliquely; the same features with certain modifications are to be seen at Yarso.

The foundation course of the outer wall consists of fair-sized flagstones laid flat, and projecting outwards about 3 inches from the face of the wall so as to form a plinth. At the south-east end of the cairn the stones forming the outer face of the wall on the west side of the entrance slope downwards from right to left (fig. 2); on the east they slant down from left to right, and this formation continues right round the monument until the south-west corner is reached (figs. 2, 3, and 4). The outer face of the wall still maintains a height of 2 feet 9 inches and 3 feet 3 inches on the west and east sides of the entrance, 2 feet 4 inches at the south-east corner, from 3 feet to 3 feet 2 inches along the east side, 1 foot 11 inches at the north-east corner, 2 feet 7 inches at the north-west end, and from 2 feet 6 inches to less than 1 foot along the west side. In places, owing to the face of the wall slipping forward, the plinth is barely visible. It is not known whether the upper part of the outer face may not have been built with the stones laid with a reverse slant and a flat string-course below, as in the Midhowe cairn (fig. 5), but in the latter the top of the string-course is only 2 feet 6 inches above the foundation, while at Yarso the face rises over 3 feet in height without any indication of a change in the style of building, and thus it is quite likely that the upper part of the wall was constructed with the stones slanting in the same direction as the lower.

Near the northern end of the east side a break in the surface of the building has exposed a length of about 8 feet of the face of an inner wall built in the ordinary way, 2 feet 4 inches in from  the  outer  face (figs, 3, 2, and 4, 2). This portion of the inner wall stands 2 feet 2 inches above the remaining part of the outer one, which is about 3 feet high here, thus indicating a surviving height of about 5 feet for the former. The inner wall was not traced farther except at the north-west corner, but it seems practically certain that it extends right round the cairn as its ends are clearly seen on both sides of the entrance passage 3 feet 10 inches from its outer end.

The burial chamber and its entrance passage (figs. 2 and 6) are placed almost in the centre of the cairn, the passage measuring along its medial line 13 feet 2 inches in length and the chamber 24 feet 1 inch. The width of the cells varies from 5 feet 5 inches to 6 feet, and the average distance between the inner ends of the divisional slabs is 2 feet 7 Inches. Both the entrance and the chamber have been rudely paved with flat stones.

The Entrance Passage. – This measures 13 feet 3 inches in length on the west side and 13 feet 1 inch on the east, and its walls still average about 3 feet in height – at the middle of their length they are 6 inches higher. The width is 1 foot 11 inches at the outside, 2 feet 4 inches about half-way along, and 2 feet at the inner end. As no lintels survive the height of the entry is unobtainable, but it must have been no less than 3 feet at any part, and so it would not be necessary to crawl in on the hands and knees as in some of the Caithness cairns where the portal is only 2 feet and 2 feet 6 inches high. It may be mentioned that in the cairn of Maeshowe the entrance at the outside is 4 feet 4 inches in height. There is a sill or step, rising 4 inches in height, 11 feet from the outer end of the passage at Yarso, and the floor of the chamber is continued about this level to the inner end.

In noting the distances that the divisional flagstones project from the wall the measurements stated were all taken on the south side of the stones. If measured on the north side there would have been a difference of from 1 inch to 2 inches but no more, so the side walls are not exactly aligned. This may give an indication as to the method of erecting the cairn. This suggests that, the site having been decided on, the upright divisional flagstones were placed in position before the walls between them were built up.

Relics. – Save for an occasional animal bone no relics were found until the chamber had been cleared out to within 1 foot 9 inches of the floor, after which numerous fragments of human skeletal remains and a large quantity of animal bones were encountered. An exception, however, has to be made in the case of the inner cell, No. 3, where a few pieces of human bones were found about the height of the scarcement, 3 feet 9 inches above the floor. These may have been late intrusions, but we think it more likely that they had been brought up from a lower level when the stones that had fallen into the chamber were being dragged out. Several shards of pottery, a few implements of bone, and a considerable number of tools and chips of flint were also recovered. It was very difficult to detect the last, as from the position of the cairn, on a flat rocky shelf, the seep of water from the higher ground to the north-east had made the relic bed very wet. Indeed, although all the sodden earth was carefully examined, handful by handful, a number of flints were recovered only after the wet soil had been spread out and washed by rain. So much disturbance had taken place while the stones were being dragged out when the upper part of the cairn was being removed that practically all the long bones and many of the human skulls had been smashed and displaced, human and animal bones being mixed up promiscuously. In one place where there were two broken skulls lying near each other, with animal bones between and around them, a deer tooth actually lay within the brain-pan of one. Nowhere was it possible to detect where a single body had been placed, as no limb bones occupied the relative positions of a skeleton either in a crouched or extended position.

Human and animal bones were found in the entrance passage and in each of the three cells, but more than four-fifths of the former and most of the latter came from the inner cell, No. 3. As we have seen, the latter is subdivided into two parts by low divisional stones, so to simplify description these compartments will be referred to as Nos. 3A and 3B, the last being at the inner end. Unless specifically mentioned, the human and animal remains were distributed over the floors of the different cells.

The scanty and much broken remains of one adult were found in the entrance passage, two in cell No. 1 and one in cell No. 2. When cell No. 3 was reached human bones were much more numerous. From the outer half, No. 3A, skeletal remains of seven adults and one adolescent were recovered. Skulls of five adults, three fragmentary and two rather better preserved, were found lying at the foot of the wall on the western side, and the remains of the other three individuals in the middle of the cell. But it was cell No. 3B that yielded most of the osseous remains. No less than seventeen adults were represented by skulls usually very much broken, vertebrae, fragments of eight femurs, other leg bones, and two humeri. Nine of the skulls were placed in juxtaposition along the foot of the western wall, six along the opposite side, and two about 15 inches from it. In no case was the lower jaw present. A very fine skull was found in the south-west corner of the cell, touching the divisional slab, which doubtless accounts for its good state of preservation.

Although some of the skulls arranged along the foot of the wall had suffered from disturbance, it seemed that they had been placed cranium upwards facing the centre of the chamber.

The bones of twenty-nine individuals at least, twenty-eight adults and one under twenty years of age, were identified. Owing to the broken state of the bones the sex was determined in only three cases, two male and one female; other two were doubtfully male.

An occasional fragment of highly calcined bone, probably human, but very small and in a very friable condition, was recovered.

The quantity of animal bones found was considerable, and consisted almost entirely of red-deer, many being of the size of the best animals existing in Scotland to-day. Bones from thirty-six of these animals were identified. Ox and sheep were just represented, and there were a few bones of a good-sized dog. Many limpets were found, and it may be recalled that about three gallons of them were discovered in a heap at the floor level in Midhowe cairn. Fish was represented by wrasse as at Midhowe. The bones were distributed throughout the relic bed of the chamber, but, as already mentioned, were more numerous in the inner half. They were much broken, and included teeth, ribs, and many articular ends and splinters of leg bones. The latter presumably had been deliberately split to get at the marrow. Many of the Yarso animal bones showed distinct marks of scorching and burning, as did a few from Midhowe.

Pottery was extremely scarce, and what we did find seems to have been deposited at a time later than the original burials. Near the top of the relic bed were found a basal fragment of a food-vessel (fig. 7, No. 1) and three small pieces of the wall. These were found quite close to the two skulls in cell No. 3B, inside one of which the deer tooth was lying. The food-vessel was of very dark ware, and was ornamented with vertical, deeply incised zigzag lines. There were also two wall fragments of other two vessels. One, of dark pottery, buff-coloured on the outside, and decorated with an incised zigzag, measuring less than 1 square inch, was so thin as to suggest that the vessel may have been a beaker (fig. 7, No. 2). The other, which was also dark in colour but with a reddish outer skin, measured 2¼ inches by 115/16 inch by ½ an inch. It bore two horizontal lines with short oblique ones above, all slightly incised (fig. 7, No. 3). It is quite impossible to determine accurately what kind of vessel it formed a part. The food-vessel seems to be the first recorded from Orkney, and the same may be said of the beaker if we are correct in our identification.

Implements and small flakes and splinters of flint were quite numerous and there were a few of grey chert; a considerable number were calcined. The implements consisted of two leaf-shaped arrow-heads, measuring 15/16 inch by 9/16 inch and ¾ inch by ½ inch, one barbed and stemmed with one barb broken off, measuring ¾ inch in length, and one very crudely made specimen with the suggestion of a tang and its edges battered, measuring 13/16 inch by 11/16 inch (fig. 8); a knife of red colour nicely worked along one edge, measuring 1⅞ inch in length, and another of grey colour, measuring 2 inches in length (fig. 9, Nos. 16 and 17); one object which has been identified as a burin d’angle or graver, measuring 1½ inch by 1⅛ inch (fig. 10); forty-six scrapers; and sixteen worked flints, a total of sixty-nine objects. The barbed arrow-head, three scrapers, four knives, and a worked flint came from the relic bed in cell No. 1. Two scrapers were found 2 feet above the floor of cell No. 2, and two knives and twenty scrapers in the bottom layer. At the latter level in cell No. 3A there were recovered a leaf-shaped arrow-head, a knife, and two scrapers, and in cell No. 3B three scrapers. The remaining implements were found in the sludge which covered the floor of the chamber. A selection of scrapers and other implements is shown in fig. 9. In addition the following flakes and splinters were found: twenty-three from cell No. 1, fifteen from cell No. 2, fourteen from cell No. 3A, and nineteen from cell No. 3B, all from the relic bed. So far as we know the burin is the first recorded from Scotland, with the exception of some Tardenoisian micro-burins.

Most of the scrapers are of small size and often of irregular shape. They measure from 7/16 inch by 17/32 inch to 1 13/16 inch by 1 inch in size. The flint is typical of what is found in Orkney, some being cherty and most of poor quality. The predominating colour is from light grey to dark and there are a few yellow. The collection again demonstrates how fully the meagre supply of this much sought after material was utilised in Orkney. It may be recalled that geologists consider that this flint was brought up from the bed of the North Sea, from the south-east, by ice.

In describing the stalled cairn at Midhowe last session we expressed the opinion that to a certain extent it had been used as an ossuary (Proceedings, vol. lxviii. pp. 334 and 335), because in addition to skeletal remains from bodies which had been placed in a crouching position, and perhaps in some cases in a sitting position, being found, there were deposits of bones from dismembered skeletons or parts of skeletons. In the Knowe of Yarso by far the greater number of skulls were arranged along the base of the walls of the two sections of the inner cell, No. 3, and so far as we could see they showed no individual relationship to the other bones. Of course, the layer containing the remains, except in the parts that lay close to the walls, was much disturbed and mixed up, presumably when the cairn was plundered for building stone. Thus it would seem that this monument should be considered an ossuary rather than a burial vault. At Midhowe the whole twenty-five individuals had been placed in the eight inner cells and none in the four which had to be traversed to reach the first deposit. At Yarso, of the twenty-nine individuals buried, twenty-five were found in the two sections of the inner cell, No. 3, seventeen in the inner half and eight in the outer. Presumably, the first burials would take place in the inner section of the inner cell, and when that was fully occupied those following would be deposited in the adjoining one. Our suggestion that the reason why no human remains were found in the four outer cells at Midhowe was that some of the bodies had been placed there until the tissues had decayed, and the bones could be removed to the inner chambers. This may quite well hold good for Yarso, as the remains of only four persons were found in the entrance passage and cells Nos. 1 and 2.

We have seen that many of the flint implements and some of the animal bones found were calcined. There are also distinct indications of fires burning within all the cells of the chamber, and on both sides. Many of the stones in the walls are reddened and cracked by fire, and bear traces of soot, from a height of 1 foot 6 inches to 3 feet above the floor. At the same time, quite a lot of pieces of charred wood and ashes were observed in the deposits on the floor. No signs of fires were seen outside the entrance.

One of the skulls from cell No. 3B, that noted as No. 4 in Professor Low’s report, shows evidence of having been in contact with fire. This would seem to show that the fires had been kindled within the chamber after some of the skulls had been deposited.

While the two cairns were extraordinarily rich in skeletal remains, twenty-five individuals at Midhowe and twenty-nine at Yarso, the amount of pottery recovered was most disappointing. Fragments of seven Neolithic vessels, mostly of the Unstan type, were found at Midhowe, but not a single shard of this period was got at Yarso. This is the more surprising when we recall the great collection of pottery found in the Unstan cairn on the adjoining island of Mainland, and the considerable quantity in the Taiverso Tuick cairn in the near vicinity of Yarso. As for the flint implements recovered, the position is reversed. Midhowe produced only one, Unstan eight, and Yarso sixty-nine.

Seeing that no Neolithic pottery was found at Yarso, but fragments of a food-vessel and possibly part of a beaker were discovered, it might be argued that the cairn should be considered as belonging to the Bronze Age. But the forms of the few skulls surviving in a measurable condition indicate the earlier period. They clearly show Neolithic characteristics, and not those of the Bronze Age people. Further, Yarso has the chamber divided into stalls like the cairns at Unstan, Midhowe, and Taiverso Tuick, all of which yielded Neolithic pottery, and, like the last two, seems to have had an upper storey at the inner end. As for the presence of Bronze Age pottery, we have evidence elsewhere in Scotland of late intrusions into Neolithic cairns, as witness the beaker pottery from the cairns at Lower Dounreay; Caithness, Clettraval, North Uist; and Rudh’ an Dunain, Skye; and the flat discoidal beads of shale at Yarrows, Caithness.

We should again like to express our great indebtedness to Mr James K. Yorston and his son James for the careful and intelligent way in which they assisted us to excavate the cairn, and to Professor Low and Miss Platt for their reports on the osseous remains.

Mr Grant has handed over the monument to H.M. Office of Works for preservation, and has given the skeletal remains to the Anatomical Department of Aberdeen University. He has also most kindly presented the artifacts found to our National Museum.

REPORT ON THE ANIMAL BONES

by
Margery I. Platt, M.Sc., Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh.

Numerous animal remains associated with Neolithic human burials were found at Yarso during excavations there by Dr J. Graham Callander and Mr Walter G. Grant in the summer of 1934. These relics are fragmentary in the extreme, yet nevertheless are of great interest in that they provide evidence of the wild life on the island in early prehistoric times. Abundant as these remains are, there is not one bone complete. In the case of the limb bones it seems quite clear from the longitudinally split fragments that they have been broken purposely for extraction of the marrow. Under these circumstances, too, it is difficult to deduce the actual size of the animals, but some idea of this may be assumed from the relative size of the articulating processes which have been preserved. In addition, it may be recorded at the outset that the use of fire is clearly evinced throughout every part of the excavation, from the many bones which have been merely charred or further calcined. The various species are dealt with below under headings representing the level at which they were found.

Entrance Passage – relic bed on floor. – The shells of limpets (Patella malgata) occurred here having both low and high cones, indicative of their being gathered from both exposed and sheltered parts of the beach. The greater part of the remains were composed of skeletal fragments of the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus). They represented two adults and one very young fawn. Both the flesh and marrow of these, together with the soft parts of the limpets, no doubt provided food for these early peoples.

No. 1 Chamber – relic bed on floor all over chamber. – In this section were the remains of three red deer, fully adult, as indicated by the lower jaws in which the molar teeth were well worn. There were also a few limb bones of very immature animals. The only antlers represented were two small tines. Lastly, there was the almost complete tibia of a dog, probably of similar height to our collie of the present day. One limpet shell only was present.

No. 2 or Middle Chamber – relic bed on floor all over chamber. – Bones of the red deer again predominated as in Chamber No. 1. The relics indicated the presence of two adults, as large as any maximum modern representative of this species, though not so massive as those whose remains have been recovered from prehistoric deposits in Scotland. For instance, a deer’s skeleton found in the peat moss in East Lothian, now preserved in this museum, was one and a quarter times as large again as these Orkney deer. Further, a young specimen was present in whose jaw the milk molar had not been shed. One small tine occurred here too. Though of no prehistoric value, it is interesting to note that some bones had been gnawed by a small rodent, possibly the Orkney vole. A few limpet shells also were found.

No. 3 or Inner Chamber. – Top of relic bed 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet above floor all over the chamber. – A great collection of red deer bones was present at this level, six animals being represented. Most individual bones of the skeleton were found, but only one small tine. There were the remains of two sheep, one approaching maturity, the other a very small lamb, and limpet shells also occurred.

From 1 foot to 1 foot 6 inches above floor all over the chamber. – In this section there were more bones of red deer than in any other part. Ten adults were represented, though not all of equal size. Four were as large as to-day’s maximum, whilst the others were smaller in differing degrees. The well-preserved teeth indicate a difference of age in the various adults. Some were old, with molars well worn down, whilst others were not so old and have much higher crowns. One decidedly immature beast was present, having the last milk molar still present and lacking the last permanent molar. Limpet shells were in abundance from several localities. Three ribs of sheep occurring here are probably accidental. About 1 foot above the floor were found pharyngeal bones of the wrasse, Labrus maculatus.

Lowest level. – Bones of red deer were most numerous. Lower jaws, odd teeth, limb bones, and ribs, etc. were in a fragmentary state, four adults being represented in the west half of 3B, and two in the east half. Only one rib of a sheep was present, as also the humerus of a dog derived from an animal of similar size to that indicated by the tibia found in Chamber No. 1. Limpet shells gathered in both exposed and quiet localities were plentiful. Two wing bones of small birds whose actual species have not been determined were also found. There were marks of gnawing on some of the bones.

Bones of three red deer and a fragment of a large antler came from the west half of 3A. Two of the tibia are judged to be of the same size as those of a maximum-sized stag of the present day, the third being rather smaller. The remains of three more deer came from the East half of this section, as also a single piece of a rib of an ox, 12 cm. in length, and the fourth metatarsal (left side) of a dog of a large size, corresponding with the other canine remains recorded above. The ox bone was the only authentic fragment of this species, and one may not lay too much significance upon the presence of this animal.

The chief interest in the facts recorded above lies in the ample remains of red deer. on the island of Rousay during a Neolithic period.

Although it is generally recognised that red deer existed in the Orkneys in prehistoric times, its occurrence in Rousay (N. of Pomona) is unrecorded for such a date. Definite dating is always difficult, and placed localities of Pleistocene or post “Pleistocene” period cited in a recent publication – Reynolds, A Monograph on the Pleistocene Mammalia, vol. Iii.  part iv. pp. 4-9 (The Paloeontographical Society) – are both situated on the island of Mainland, otherwise Pomona. The prehistoric range of red deer given in  a  map  in  The  Influence of Man on the Animal Life in Scotland (Ritchie, 1920) is seen only in a restricted part of Pomona and islands to the east of this, and consequently does not include Rousay. Hence these facts extend the range of the red deer in the Orkneys generally at a time when the presence of man had not materially affected its numbers, directly or indirectly. As stated previously, the red deer no doubt was the chief source of food of these early inhabitants, together with the shellfish represented here by limpets. There is little evidence of domestic stock. Most of the sheep bones occurred in the upper layers, and jaw bones only at the top level, where bones of red deer were correspondingly sparse. Also the presence of ox is extremely doubtful, since only one fragmentary rib was found, and it may have accidentally fallen from surface soils.

Altogether three fragmentary bones of a dog occurred in differing situations, although their size indicates they may have all belonged to the same animal. In the absence of jaws or a more complete skeleton, one may regard these remains as accidental or intrusive. Further, the dimensions are not consistent with those of a dog from such an early period.

In conclusion I wish to record my thanks to Mr Grant and Dr Callander, who have kindly put the material at my disposal

REPORT ON THE HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS.

by Professor Alex. Low, M.A., M.D., F.S.A.Scot.

Dr Callander and Mr Walter G. Grant have given an account of the position in which the human remains described in this report were found. The remains represent at least twenty-nine individuals, all adult except for one young individual perhaps about eighteen years of age. As is mostly the case in Neolithic interments the bones are poorly preserved. The broken nature and irregular position of the skeletal remains suggest that there probably had been some disturbance of the original interments. In all, only five skulls and four leg bones are approximately complete.

One cranium, except for the mandible, is complete and excellently preserved, and fortunately other four with some reconstruction are in fairly good condition and admit of measurements being recorded.

List of Skulls.

No. 1. (Cell 3B, west side of inner compartment.) Complete cranium; male, between 30 and 40 years.
No. 2. (Cell 3B, west side of inner compartment.) Cranium, face absent; male, about 40 years.
No. 3. (Cell 3A, west side of outer compartment.) Cranium, face absent; female, about 45 years.
No. 4. (Cell 33, east side of inner compartment.) Cranium, fairly complete; male, about 25 years.
No. 5. (Cell 3A, west side of outer compartment.) Complete cranium but abnormal; male, probably early twenties.

Skull No. 1 (figs. 12 to 15) is complete except for the mandible, and is that of a male. The teeth are in very good condition and have all been present at death, but the two upper central incisors are now missing. The teeth do not show any trace of disease and the amount of attrition of the crowns is very slight, not more than would be expected in an individual in the late twenties. On the other hand the sutures on the inner aspect of the cranium are all closed; on the outer aspect the whole of the sagittal suture, and the coronal and lambdoid sutures except at their lower parts are obliterated. The condition of the sutures would indicate an individual of at least forty years of age.

The cranium is elongated and ovoid with a relative breadth of 70.5 per cent – dolichocephalic. The profile view shows a long skull of medium height with glabella and superciliary arches moderately developed; upper part of forehead rather full; occipital squama projecting well beyond the inion. The upper face is relatively long, the orbits and nasal aperture from their indices are just to be reckoned narrow; the upper jaw is prognathous, this is largely due to subnasal prognathism but is partly accounted for by the rather short basinasal length. The occipital view (fig. 15) shows well the pentagonal outline, parietal eminences placed high up, and the sides flattened. The cranial capacity of 1390 c.c. of mustard seed is rather under the average.

Skull No. 2 is represented by the calvaria, and is that of a male, the condition of the sutures indicating an individual about forty. While this is a larger and more massive calvaria, it has much the same characters as the previous skull; thus it is elongated and ovoid with projecting occipital squama. The cubic capacity is approximately 1500 c.c. and the length-breadth index 73.7 – dolichocephalic.

Skull No. 3 is a calvaria with the facial skeleton missing, except for the two nasal bones. It is that of an individual probably about forty-five years of age; the sex is somewhat doubtful, but on the whole the characters are those of a rather muscular female. The upper orbital margins are thin and sharp, the glabella and superciliary arches faintly marked, and the forehead high and well arched; there is flatness of the vertex, prominence of the parietal eminences and the side walls of the skull approach the vertical. The skull is relatively somewhat wider with a cephalic index of 74.7 – just in the dolichocephalic group.

Skull No. 4. This cranium, apart from lower jaw, is sufficiently intact to allow of a fairly complete series of measurements being obtained. The skull is that of a young individual, and sex characters, though not so marked, are those indicating a male. The basilar suture is closed, but all the other sutures of the cranium are open both ectocranially and endocranially; the teeth in the upper jaw have all been present at death, but now only five remain; these are in very good condition, the amount of attrition being slight, and further, in the same compartment and similarly stained as the skull, there was a male left hip-bone, in which the secondary epiphysis has only partly fused along the crest; there is a probability that the skull and the hip-bone belonged to the same individual, a young man about 25 years. In its cranial features this skull is very similar to the others; the glabella and superciliary arches are of medium development, upper part of forehead prominent, occipital squama projecting; face of medium height with upper jaw projecting – prognathous; orbits and nose narrow.

Skull No. 5 is abnormal and of remarkable shape and will be described separately.

Unfortunately, the other bones of the skeletons are very fragmentary. Several separate vertebrae show marked evidences of rheumatism. Of the many limb bones, only one right femur and three separate tibiae are complete. The maximum length of the femur is approximately 430 mm., which gives a calculated stature of about 5 feet 4 inches. The shafts of three other femora are intact and the diameters of the upper third of the shaft in four specimens measure 28 by 36; 26 by 33; 26 by 36; 28 by 40; the proportion of the antero-posterior to the transverse diameter varying from 70 to 78.7 per cent. – a degree of platymeria usually present in femora of the Neolithic period. In the middle of the shaft the antero-posterior diameter was the greater in four male femora, and also in two female femora; the linea aspera in the four male femora was well developed.

The total length of each of the three entire male tibiae is 330 mm., 331 mm., and 346 mm. respectively; calculating by Pearson’s formula gives a stature of approximately 5 feet 3 inches, practically the same as that obtained from length of femur; the two short male tibia are right and left and seem to be a pair. In addition to these three entire tibiae there are the shafts of seven others with the upper and lower ends deficient. Of the seven tibiae two are rather slightly built and probably female, the other five are stouter bones and probably male. The tibiae are flattened from side to side, being platycnemic; the diameters at the level of the nutrient foramen of the eight bones apparently males, give a mean index of 66.5 and of the two female 72.2.

The limb bones on the whole are such as would have belonged to individuals of average muscular development; further, they are relatively short, and so far as can be calculated from the measurements obtainable the men were about 5 feet 4 inches in stature.

The skulls are very similar to those recovered from the Midhowe stalled cairn, and indicate a people with elongated heads, with forehead rather prominent, brow-ridges moderately developed, nose narrow and orbits not wide, and face prognathous.

Skull No. 5 consists of the calvaria with the facial portion fairly complete, but the lower jaw is missing. The skull presents unusual features in that it shows very marked asymmetry associated with premature closure of the sutures. The skull is probably that of a young male, but no trace of suture is to be seen on the calvaria, the synostosis being so complete that there is no indication of the separate bones. The teeth are irregular; there is no trace of the presence of the lateral incisors; the left canine is present and erupted, but the right while present in the jaw is unerupted; the two right bicuspids are also unerupted, while the two left are erupted; the first and second molars are well developed and present on both sides; the third molars are unerupted; the crowns of the erupted teeth show little attrition. The irregularity in suture closure and in eruption of teeth make it difficult to assign an age for the skull, but it might be that of a young man in the early twenties.

The dimensions and features of the skull can be learned from the illustrations (figs. 16 to 19). The asymmetry is noticeable in the vertex view, the long axis passing through the right frontal eminence which projects in front of its fellow. There is asymmetry of the base of the skull, the transverse level of the left external ear being in advance of the right. There is also asymmetry of the face and palate. The cranium is very narrow from side to side, and viewed from above is boat-shaped, cranial index 63.3 – ultradolichocephalic; further, there is marked heightening especially of the upper part of the frontal region in the facial view, producing the appearance of steeple-skull. A factor in the production of this abnormal skull form, has been an arrest of growth with premature closure of the cranial sutures.

In fig. 20 are shown face views of skulls Nos. 1, 4, and 5, and vertical views of skulls Nos. 2 and 3.

We are greatly indebted to Walter G. Grant, Esq., F.S.A.Scot., of Trumland, Rousay, who has presented these Neolithic skeletal remains for preservation in the Anatomy Museum, University of Aberdeen.

TABLE 1

Measurements in mm. of Skulls from a Long, Stalled Cairn, the Knowe of Yarso, Rousay, Orkney.

Extracted from the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 69, pp. 325-351, March 11th 1935.

Available in the Orkney Room at Orkney Library & Archive

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