<< Our Photo Pages >> Rennibister Souterrain - Souterrain (Fogou, Earth House) in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Sunday, 07 March 2004 Page Views: 16663
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Rennibister SouterrainCountry: 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:
| 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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I have visited· I would like to visit
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
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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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.