<< Our Photo Pages >> Queenafjold - Barrow Cemetery in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Thursday, 28 April 2005 Page Views: 5013
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Queenafjold Alternative Name: Ravie Hill, Queena FjoldCountry: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 0.5 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Orkney Type: Barrow Cemetery
Nearest Town: Dounby
Map Ref: HY268250
Latitude: 59.105553N Longitude: 3.279769W
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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Barrow Cemetery in Orkney
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY22NE 8 at HY268250, first described as being "near the Free Church in Birsay", is another barrow cemetery like the Knowes of Trotty but on the flat by comparison. Like the folklore motif they never seem to be the same number twice, the mounds in the main group having climbed from six to eight with HY22SE 36 over the road near Newbigging at HY265249 being counted as an extra member of the same group. The latter (possibly kerbed) is the only one to have been excavated twice, the first time producing a steatite urn. The first report on the main body of the group says the peat depth was the same over the whole field wherein they lie and talks of a single cist with burnt bones being found in the centre of each one.
The general line of the mounds is a diagonal approaching the loch. Using basically the 1946 account first of six in the field is a gravelly mound 30x4' against which the largest, the second, lies which was exposed down to the ground to reveal a small cist (modern labelling 'C' with short cist at HY26732511). Fifty yards to the southeast is a third roughly 26' by 3'high. The fourth is another fifty yards away measuring 20' by 12-18", a protruding stone about 5 1/4" by at least 27" on top another cist probably ('E' at HY26792505). It has a few stones about its margin. A pointed stone at the centre of another barrow ('F' at HY26772505) another 13 yards west, is the third probable cist. This barrow is 35' across and 4-4 1/2 high and has had a trench through its middle, as has the sixth mound which is about the same height but 37' diameter and lies between the second and fifth enumerated. The next I have details on is 'H' at HY26772507, the smallest at 10x1'.
These mounds lie in the field next to the house before the Bigbreck Quarry as you come down on the B967 nearing the Twatt junction(where the Free Church sits). I have been here one or two times and strangely have never consciously noticed them. Actually my attention was first drawn by the several large stones lying by the top end of the field. There is enough material exposed in several of the barrows to make them worth a visit if you are in the area, another site for an other day. Before reaching here, between Nicol Point and the barrow cemetery, I saw two big stones isolated in the middle of a field, a grey standing stone and lying against it a thick slab of IIRC a sandy coloration. When I found the Queenafjold barrows I wished to turn back for a photo of this stone anomaly but my schedule had slipped too far already.
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