<< Our Photo Pages >> Bretta Ness - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 Page Views: 2209
Multi-periodSite Name: Bretta Ness Alternative Name: Loch of WasbiterCountry: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Village: Tingwall
Map Ref: HY39723324
Latitude: 59.181565N Longitude: 3.05652W
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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RCAHMS record no. HY33SE 12, this gently mounded promontory is by tradition the site of a kirk - the 1880 Name Book says the stones from it were removed to the loch margins. It is almost completely artificial, but to my mind the rise in water levels makes it unlikely to have been an isolated crannog as the neck would have been even broader in prehistory, more like a broch with causeway I'd hazard.
A now underwater dump of stone (whether natural slabs or no is not settled) is overlain by a masonry platform and then the whole covered by a mound 1.7m in height and ~30mD. This site has been used since at least Pictish times, possibly metalworking later from what I've read (I'm minded on the Knowe of Verron in Sandwick). Exploratory digs found an E/W line of wall-footings with building rubble and lime plaster that could be taken for chapel remains when coupled with the alignment. Over at the W end the site's first use may be signified by thick circular walls (aerial photography has also revealed a weed-covered feature in the loch west of Bretta Ness). Then came what sound like beehive cells,. Subsequent buildings left very scant remains because of frequent robbing, but due to later re-use as part of a kiln setup a flagged floor and walls built into the earlier rubble did survive.
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