<< Our Photo Pages >> Knowe of Geoso - Chambered Cairn in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Tuesday, 09 August 2005 Page Views: 5731
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Knowe of Geoso Alternative Name: BrockanCountry: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Chambered Cairn
Nearest Town: Stromness Nearest Village: Dounby
Map Ref: HY22821792
Latitude: 59.041286N Longitude: 3.346743W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Chambered Cairn in Orkney
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NW 19 is an overgrown eminence of small stones and earth generally called the Knowe of Geoso. It was [?]mistakenly thought to be a broch by association with the dwelling of Brockan in the diagonally opposite corner of a field below [itself now mistakenly placed at the quarry in the adjacent field's corner, Brockan here being a name which like the Hillock of Breakna signifies 'broken (hillside)']. This turf-covered mound despite much 'quarrying' is still about 0.8m high and roughly 25m across, and has barely breaking the surface in the exact centre a 0.4m long slab that could be what remains of a cist. To the SE [i.e. immediate left as you come up from Skaill Home Farm] there lie nine stones of more monumental size in an arc that probably preceded the knowe, having significant weathering and not sharing a commonality of centre with it.
From Skaill House you can see the line of two field walls running from behind Skaill Home Farm (originally The Mount) all the way to the top. From near the site of Brockan (HY23031797, the now dry deepcut streambed that gave its name to the Knowe of Geoso lying in the same field) looking across I saw a low flat hillock and a small peaky mound. When I had a closer look I saw they were the same site viewed looking from the SE along a curving hollow. Which means that from down below the whole of the flattened hilltop is the knowe. So it feels quite large when you get there. I was also surprised to find that from this ridge you can see not only all the way down to the Bay of Skaill and across but also down to the Broch of Borthwick (built on the site of an earlier structure) and beyond. A view as near panoramic as another chambered mound at Hurkisgarth (HY25451770) - perhaps in part these functioned as early precursors to the ward hills?
Though at this time the grass is lower here than at the likes of the Hillock of Breakna the supposed cist slab would still be rendered invisible. There seemed to be various depressions underfoot but the most obvious feature is that deep large curved 'passage' carving up the mound. The knowe is described as "greatly mutilated by quarrying" which I doubt would be the case if this had been a simple mound of earth and small stones. I imagine more obvious stones having been extracted long ago, but there could well be some left below the present ground surface.
Perhaps my assumption of larger stones within the mound does relate to the O.S arc of earthfast stones just outside the area of the mound itself. Not having remembered about these I approached them afresh. What took my eye first was an apparent grouping of three of inconsistent appearance - one of bent bi-cuboid shape, one a small flat rock, the largest cracked and pockmarked - but these were merely the tops of these earthfast stones. Forgot to measure them but the smallest was on the order of a foot across the shortest dimension. This grouping is near the middle left of the mound. Nearer to the southern end lie two triangular stones against each other, one much larger than the other. These rest in a distinct depression that is additionally marked by different vegetation from that surrounding.
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