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St Wilfrid (Melling)

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From Carnac to Callanish: Prehistoric Stone Rows, Aubrey Burl

From Carnac to Callanish: Prehistoric Stone Rows, Aubrey Burl

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<< Our Photo Pages >> The Cairns - Cairn in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Tuesday, 26 May 2009  Page Views: 4665

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: The Cairns Alternative Name: Hall of Ireland
Country: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 0.882 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Orkney Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Stromness  Nearest Village: Stenness
Map Ref: HY29050987
Latitude: 58.970093N  Longitude: 3.23561W
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
 2 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.
 3 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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The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : slide shot shows slope (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cairn in Orkney

HY20NE 1 Might as well call it a cairnfield. A 100m by 50m (approx) bit of 'waste' land near the cliff edge containing lots of small hillocks of stone with no apparent arrangement, though the 1998 coastal survey has a 54m by 30m N/S platform some 3m high which it identifies as the 'Danish fort' of tradition i.e. late Viking or early mediaeval (I don't see how a defensive structure this size could escape historical or edda mention myself). Said platform looked to rise slightly towards the edges, as if banked (visible stones seen as perhaps revetment wall). The survey also mentioned a small mound to the platforms SE as probably artificial and a curving earthen banked enclosure some 50m by 10m lying between the platform and the cliffs - bone pins are reported to have been found where The Cairns near the cliff edge. Strangely the most obvious defensive feature is not mentioned - as I approached from Corn Hillock at the north end runs a long deep trench like a burn that has been made into a rather rough slipway, some stones apparent in the sides. At two places I managed to scramble up the cliff. Nothing doing. At a third looking back from the south The Cairns only had a few stones visible but there is a rather small peak near the centre of the profile. The earliest reports are of the biggest mound, some 8m across and 1m high, as the most northerly. The 1882 O.S. shows a mound at the end furthest from the sea (the east end), much diminished by 1903, which the coastal survey associates with the 1880 ONB 'castle' of turf-covered earth and stones that they believe to be their platform (and ? linked features).
An archaeologist is of the opinion that in the coastal survey EASE sometimes firmed up their site typings more than is warranted and the fact that Cummi Howe, Corn Hillock and The Cairns are equidistant lead me to suspect this place is multi-period.
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The Cairns Windwick Bay
The Cairns Windwick Bay submitted by mgts24 : The last day of the 2016 excavation season, I managed to get low enough to isolate these orthostats—in the middle of The Cairns Broch— against the sky. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

The Cairns Windwick Bay
The Cairns Windwick Bay submitted by dodomad : Working inside the broch today (July 3rd 2018) (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : Aerial photo adapted from archi.uk (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Cairns Windwick Bay
The Cairns Windwick Bay submitted by dodomad : The excavations at The Cairns are part of an archaeological research project investigating the later prehistory of the landscape around Windwick, on the island of South Ronaldsay, Orkney. Work at The Cairns has been taking place since 2006, with the investigation now focusing on the excavation of a large Atlantic Roundhouse, or broch, and associated structures from various phases through the... (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : central portion of mound at S end of The Cairns (Hall of Ireland) (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : mound at S end of The Cairns (Hall of Ireland)

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : south end of The Cairns (Hall of Ireland)

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : The Cairns (Hall of Ireland), mound near north end

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : The Cairns (Hall of Ireland) from the road

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : The Cairns, Hall of Ireland) coming from Hall of Ireland

The Cairns Windwick Bay
The Cairns Windwick Bay submitted by tinoc : Some of The Cairns excavation team at work on the outside of the broch wall. Photo credit: Martin Carruthers (1 comment)

The Cairns
The Cairns submitted by howar : W-E profile taken from clifftop

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 633m WNW 295° Corn Hillock* Cairn (HY28481015)
 999m WNW 301° Cummi Howe* Broch or Nuraghe (HY282104)
 1.8km NW 304° Howe Chambered Tomb* Chambered Tomb (HY276109)
 2.0km NNW 337° Unstan* Chambered Cairn (HY28291172)
 2.1km NNW 335° Diamond Cottage* Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle (HY28211176)
 2.1km NNE 33° Standing Stones Hotel* Chambered Cairn (HY30251165)
 2.7km NW 315° Deepdale Stones* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY272118)
 2.7km WSW 248° Quoyelsh* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY265089)
 3.0km NW 308° Deepdale Cottages* Standing Stones (HY267118)
 3.1km N 4° Possible large stone circle in Loch of Stenness Stone Circle (HY2933112934)
 3.1km NNE 30° Stenness* Stone Circle (HY3067012520)
 3.1km N 6° Fairy Well (Stenness)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (HY2943212982)
 3.1km NNE 27° Watch Stone (Orkney)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY30551264)
 3.2km NNE 22° Brodgar Farm Standing Stones* Standing Stones (HY303128)
 3.2km NE 43° Barnhouse Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY31271217)
 3.2km NNE 24° Lochview Mound* Cairn (HY304128)
 3.2km NNE 20° Brodgar Farm Chambered Tomb Chambered Tomb (HY302129)
 3.3km NNE 20° Ness of Brodgar* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY3024312941)
 3.3km NNE 30° Barnhouse Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY30761270)
 3.4km N 5° South Knowe* Artificial Mound (HY29411328)
 3.4km N 3° Salt Knowe* Round Barrow(s) (HY293133)
 3.5km N 9° Comet Stone (Orkney)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY2963413318)
 3.5km N 5° Ring of Brodgar* Stone Circle (HY29451335)
 3.6km N 8° Fresh Knowe* Long Barrow (HY29601339)
 3.7km N 6° Plumcake Mound* Round Barrow(s) (HY295135)
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"The Cairns" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Re: The Cairns by howar on Sunday, 14 March 2021
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updated description
The Cairns (Hall of Ireland), RCAHMS record no. HY20NE 1 at HY290559871, is described in the Orkney Name Book as mostly a raised earth and stone grass-covered mound [forming the northen end and~25'D by 3' high], the remains of a Danish fort/castle (as they thought). It is an uneven patch of ground approx. 100x50 yards with many irregular stony mounds that a recent survey think represents a substantial structure having seaward an enclosed yard (they also found a smaller mound landward of the structure's remains). RCAHMS described it as a 3m high N/S platform some 54x30m, and parallel to the coast, whose mostly level top rises slightly to the edges. To its seaward side bone pins were found in an area on the order of 50x10m that is enclosed by a curvilinear bank. The recent survey describes the structure as an irregular mound bounded by the yard (which goes all the way to the eroding coastline). The yard's north and south sides are formed by irregular earthen banks coming from the proposed structure's NW and SW corners.
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Re: The Cairns by howar on Sunday, 14 March 2021
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At present it is proposed that this is a funerary or ritual site. In which case I think it could relate to the scant remains of a large disc barrow on the hillside above - the Howe of Tongue held a cist https://canmore.org.uk/site/1492/hall-of-ireland
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Re: The Cairns by howar on Monday, 14 September 2009
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Even worse than the description sounds as everything is under turf and you wade through knee-high grass - the vegetation still growing now and only able to find one of the stones seen last time. Virtually impossible to get into to boot.
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