<< Our Photo Pages >> Knowes of Trotty - Barrow Cemetery in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Friday, 20 September 2024  Page Views: 11683

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Knowes of Trotty
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Barrow Cemetery
Nearest Town: Finstown  Nearest Village: Dounby
Map Ref: HY341175
Latitude: 59.039408N  Longitude: 3.150092W
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.
 4 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.
 1 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
 3

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Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by Dodomad : Mounds one and two. Photo Credit: Sigurd Towrie After being repeatedly thwarted by wet and windy weather, an evening of glorious sunshine on Thursday saw an impromptu UHI Archaeology Institute expedition to this barrow cemetery in Orkney’s West Mainland. The goal was to secure photographs to accompany the Knowes of Trotty chapter in Professors Jane Downes and Colin Richards’ forthc... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Barrow Cemetery in Orkney West Mainland. The cairns were constructed using natural drumlins as platforms. Though many were excavated by 'barrow-diggers' only the one with the golden discs was in any sense recorded. The 2002 excavation, besides numerous cists in one of the cairns revealed in a flat area between two of the cairns some kind of building - perhaps a mortuary structure.

In the Bronze Age the settlements were tiny and usually within a kilometre or two (so look about you if you visit). I think that from here you could have made out the Knowes of Trinnawin tumuli on the west side of Hindera Fiold. From the cairn nearest Netherhouse at one spot two of the hills almost form a continuous flat skyline.
They aren't much to look at - I would have been content to take a group picture at the first suitable place and gone back, myself. We were guided by Jane Downes, who led the 2002 excavation.

Because the area covered by these 11 cairns is now under management (hence the falling through of funding for further excavations this year) by agreement you can no longer reach here through the Netherhouse byre but have to go the long way around via the Howe Road.

The way through the heath is a ways past the Howe Farm turnoff and on your right. The rough and intermittent path leading to the 'cemetery' isn't signposted so it is fortunate that they stand out. Owing to all the moss and heather it is a very bouncy walk - thankfully duckboards have been placed along the worst patches of the swampy bits now.

NOTE: The above access information is from 2006 so may be out of date, if you have details on current access please leave a comment on this page. Links to lots more on this site in the comments below.

Note: Lovely new photos of this site to illustrate the new book: Animating the Dead: An Archaeology of Bronze Age Burial Practices in Orkney - more in the comments on this page
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Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by Dodomad : Mounds seven and eight. Photo Credit: Sigurd Towrie After being repeatedly thwarted by wet and windy weather, an evening of glorious sunshine on Thursday saw an impromptu UHI Archaeology Institute expedition to this barrow cemetery in Orkney’s West Mainland. The goal was to secure photographs to accompany the Knowes of Trotty chapter in Professors Jane Downes and Colin Richards’ fo... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by Flickr : Archaeologists out standing in their field? Knowes of Trotty, re-excavating an antiquarian dig of a bronze age barrow, summer 2005 Image copyright: ovson (Alistair), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by Flickr : Doing it the "antiquarian" way Re -excavating a bronze age barrow at the Knowes of Trotty, Orkney. Its a scheduled monument so we only had permission to follow the old antiquarian excavation. Under the plank is a large-ish cist. with a couple of amber and gold frags missed in times gone by. Judith (now sadly lost to us) is excavating the cist. Orkney College Archaeology Dept Image copyright:... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by howar : 'Recently' excavated Knowes of Trotty seen from Winksetter farmroad (Vote or comment on this photo)

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by howar : Borthern end of Knowes of Trotty seen from farmroad to Winksetter

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by howar : View south from Lyde Road of northernmost of Knowes of Trotty showing boundary/ditch

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by howar : Knowes of Trotty seen from Lyde Road

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by jeffrep : Knowes of Trotty Barrow Cemetery, Mainland, Orkney, Scotland

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by jeffrep

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by jeffrep

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by howar : Closer to one of the cairns

Knowes of Trotty
Knowes of Trotty submitted by howar : A few of the cairns, sheep on main one excavated

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Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

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"Knowes of Trotty" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
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Golden sunlight at Knowes of Trotty barrow cemetery by Andy B on Friday, 20 September 2024
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Sigurd Towrie writes: After being repeatedly thwarted by wet and windy weather, an evening of glorious sunshine on Thursday saw an impromptu UHI Archaeology Institute expedition to a barrow cemetery in Orkney’s West Mainland.

The goal was to secure photographs to accompany the Knowes of Trotty chapter in Professors Jane Downes and Colin Richards’ forthcoming volume, Animating the Dead: An Archaeology of Bronze Age Burial Practices in Orkney.
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/9798888571439/animating-the-dead/

With Jane and Colin were Sigurd Towrie, of the UHI Archaeology Institute, and MRes student Sue Dyke.
The Knowes of Trotty is one of the biggest Bronze Age cemeteries between Orkney and southern England and the only one of its kind in known in northern Britain. Despite its scale and grandeur, it is also a notoriously difficult site to photograph.

The site is made up of a series of 16 barrows arranged in two rows. Aligned roughly NNE-SSW, the two lines extend over 350 metres through what is now a damp, marshy landscape.

Read more about the site, with lots more amazing photos at
archaeologyorkney.com/2024/09/20/knowes-trotty-2024/

At the Knowes of Trotty, the decision to erect a barrow cemetery on the site of a possible Neolithic settlement – not to mention placing the primary burial directly on top of the remains of a structure – was a statement.

To the 2005 excavation team, it was “almost certainly a desire … to draw power and authority to themselves and their emergent ancestors by emphasising origins, situating their burial monuments upon the remains of their ‘founding-fathers’”.

A short distance to the north-east of Mound one, the remains of an Early Neolithic house were discovered in 2002. Based on its architecture, the structure clearly dated from the fourth millennium BC – built sometime between 3400BC and 3100BC.
More on that here:
http://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/knowes-of-trotty/
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Re: Knowes of Trotty by drolaf on Monday, 04 July 2022
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Four early Bronze age gold discs found in the cist with amber. RC date 2030-1770 BC. Probably a woman's grave. The discs are very similar to those found in Ireland about same time. Were mounted on a curved backing, like the gold lozenges found in Wiltshire and Dorset. This find illustrates the long distance links between the far north and southern Britain, with possibly the far north having continuing influence from the Neolithic.

Reconstruction:

https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections-research/collections-departments/scottish-history-and-archaeology/projects/prehistoric-gold-in-britain/gold-object-of-the-week/gold-object-of-the-week-no-3/
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Re: Knowes of Trotty by howar on Friday, 03 November 2006
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The radiocarbon dating for material associated with the gold-bearing cist has come back a little earlier than expected at, the date being about 2100bce
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Uncovering the burial mounds of Bronze Age Scots by Andy B on Monday, 11 September 2006
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The late Caroline Wickham Jones wrote in 2006: Four thousand years ago work began to erect the great earthen burial mounds that comprise the Bronze Age barrow cemetery at the Knowes of Trotty, in Harray, Orkney. There are at least 16 barrows - or graves - in two rows, nestling between the edge of the farmlands and the foot of the moorland. Many were raised upon natural mounds to enhance their prominence.

More:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070115102703/http://heritage.scotsman.com/places.cfm?id=1242462006 (archive link)
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Neolithic site confirmed at Bronze Age cemetery by Andy B on Wednesday, 09 August 2006
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Questions surrounding an ‘unusual’ building at the Knowes o’ Trotty Bronze Age cemetery have been answered – at least partially.

The structure has turned out to be an early Neolithic house, which predates the Harray cemetery by approximately 1,500 years.

News from 2006: https://web.archive.org/web/20101128215322/http://orkneyjar.com/archaeology/knowes2006.htm (archive link)
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Re: Knowes of Trotty by Andy B on Friday, 04 August 2006
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Excavations from 2002:
web.archive.org/web/20031210093525/http://www.orkneydigs.org.uk/2002/dig3/index.asp (archive link)
Excavations from 2005-6:
http://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/archaeology-institute/our-research/research-projects/knowes-of-trotty/
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