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<< Our Photo Pages >> Rennibister Souterrain - Souterrain (Fogou, Earth House) in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Sunday, 07 March 2004  Page Views: 16176

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Rennibister Souterrain
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Souterrain (Fogou, Earth House)
Nearest Town: Kirkwall  Nearest Village: Finstown
Map Ref: HY39731260  Landranger Map Number: 6
Latitude: 58.996245N  Longitude: 3.050662W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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Judy6 coin would like to visit

bishop_pam visited on 21st Apr 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 3

SandyG DrewParsons TimPrevett HaggisAction have visited here

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by enkidu41 : HY 397125 Acces to the 8' x 11' hexagonal chamber to this earth-house is by a trapdoor although originally it wa a sloping passage. The walls are of drystone masonry and upright slabs, its roof of overlapping lintels supported on four heavy pillars. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Souterrain (Fogou, Earth House) in Orkney

Coming back up the road from having visited Ingshowe Broch I at long last paid a visit to Rennibister . Always been put off by the idea of crawling through the 2' square entrance passage and then this last month I find there is a ladder down from the top like at Wideford Hill Cairn ! If only the gate in the fence around it wasn't so stuck , the bolt took a lot of convincing to come back across .

Down inside I turned around and felt almost hemmed in . As you descend you notice the uppermost corbelling and the flat 'roof' are painted grey to show they're not original . Around the sides are several rectangular niches . Opposite the ladder off the bottom is that entrance passage , easier than the dimensions make you think but damp gravel on the floor and trousers not scruffy enough made me give it a miss . Looking in there was light beyond that made me believe the other end still open ( thirty foot long I was once told ) but out in the open it probably needs more than the cursory search that I made . This is another of those places best suited to a compact camera ( digital for extensive depth of focus ) and flash .

Additional information supplied by Drew Parsons September 2010:
The earth-house is located in the yard of a working farm signposted from the main road. Park by the sign in the driveway to the farm and walk the last 120 metres to the site turning right just past the farm house to see the iron fence around the site. There is a good site sign there. In September 2010 the gate was easily opened and the earth house entered via a trap door and ladder. A few new stones towards the top of the site are painted grey to distinguish them from the original stonework. Take a torch with you. The site was discovered in 1926 when a farm vehicle fell through part of the roof and has been excavated and made accessible to the public via a roof trap door and ladder. Original access was via a 3.5 metre passage with a short drop into the chamber which had a corbelled roof and four supporting stone pillars now strapped to strengthen them. There are five alcoves in the chamber. When excavated there were the disarticulated bones of six adults and twelve children in the chamber, so the site had been used as both a dwelling and later as a delayed burial site.
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Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : View into the restored chamber showing the roof supports with their strengthening bands. September 2010. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by enkidu41 : HY 397125 Access to the 8' x 11' hexagonal chamber is by a trapdoor although originally it was a sloping passage. The walls are of drystone masonry and upright slabs, its roof of overlapping lintels supported on four heavy pillars. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by ShamrockStone : Rennibister (Vote or comment on this photo)

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : Detail of one of the four roof supports in the main chamber. September 2010 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : Looking down the original access passage. September 2010. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : One of the five alcoves in the side of the main chamber. September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : The ladder into the chamber. September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : RH side; N pillar, niche, E pillar, double niche [lower my 'slot']

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : Inner end of passage showing bedrock chamber cuts into

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : Chamber from passage, L-R; north and east pillars, skull niche, south and west pillars

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : Roof of entrance passage.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : Modern entrance from inside.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by ShamrockStone : Rennibister

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by SandyG : The passage. (2nd June 2015).

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by SandyG : The way in. (2nd June 2015).

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by SandyG : View from Wideford Hill. (6th June 2015).

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : Into the site!! September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : The gated (usually unlocked) and fenced area around the site entrance. September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : Floor plan from the site sign. September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : An illustration of what the earth-house would have looked like originally. September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by DrewParsons : The informative site sign. September 2010.

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : LH side from surface

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : RH side from surface

Rennibister Souterrain
Rennibister Souterrain submitted by howar : Near RH side from ladder

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"Rennibister Souterrain" | Login/Create an Account | 7 News and Comments
  
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by ShamrockStone on Thursday, 12 April 2018
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Rennibister Earth House
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by ShamrockStone on Monday, 02 April 2018
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Accurate coordinates: 58.996180N, 3.050630W (taken by GPS)
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by DrewParsons on Friday, 15 October 2010
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The earth-house is located in the yard of a working farm signposted from the main road. Park by the sign in the driveway to the farm and walk the last 120 metres to the site turning right just past the farm house to see the iron fence around the site. There is a good site sign there. In September 2010 the gate was easily opened and the earth house entered via a trap door and ladder. A few new stones towards the top of the site are painted grey to distinguish them from the original stonework. Take a torch with you. The site was discovered in 1926 when a farm vehicle fell through part of the roof and has been excavated and made accessible to the public via a roof trap door and ladder. Original access was via a 3.5 metre passage with a short drop into the chamber which had a corbelled roof and four supporting stone pillars now strapped to strengthen them. There are five alcoves in the chamber. When excavated there were the disarticulated bones of six adults and twelve children in the chamber, so the site had been used as both a dwelling and later as a delayed burial site. September 2010.
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by howar on Wednesday, 14 July 2010
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HY39731260 [updated]
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by howar on Wednesday, 14 July 2010
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RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31SW 3. This site came to light on a Friday afternoon when a steam threshing mill broke through the surface and became stuck. John Mooney and WilliamTraill came the same day for a look over and on the next Traill and Dr.Marwick gave "a more thorough examination". Its walls are a mix of large ?natural boulders and small quarried stones. The corbelled roof sits on four stones a yard apart, slightly over a foot from the walls and and roughly foursquare [that they are unequal in height suggests to me a possible origin as standing stones]. This oval gallery chamber is 15'3" NW/SE by 8'6", with a 27"x30" passage running approximately 10' from the NW end that is lintelled by oversized untooled slabs. In the walls there are several rectangular niches [including a slot near the floor on the RH side] all of which were empty except for a skull in that opposite the entrance [I assume the one behind the ladder]. More skulls were found about the inner side of the "south pillar". A mass of other bones were also found. At the outer end of the passage was shell midden material [ritual sealing ?]. All of this from report in "The Orkney Herald" of November 17th 1926.Viewed from the new entrance running clockwise the stones are southerly [LH near], westerly [LH far], northerly [RH far], easterly [RH near].
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by enkidu41 on Tuesday, 25 January 2005
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URL seems to be incorrect - at least it is according to AOL.
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Re: Rennibister Souterrain by howar on Tuesday, 25 January 2005
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Went back with digital camera. Simply had to try the original passage. Still too damp to crawl over, even to slide on my back in my jacket. My solution was to crouch, then bend way over onto extended fingertips and proceed on all fours. This worked.
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