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<< Our Photo Pages >> Loch of Tankerness - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Sunday, 28 March 2004  Page Views: 7438

Multi-periodSite Name: Loch of Tankerness
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Kirkwall
Map Ref: HY522093  Landranger Map Number: 6
Latitude: 58.968192N  Longitude: 2.832951W
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.
 2 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
 3

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Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Orkney at HY522093 (Vote or comment on this photo)
Settlement & Burnt Mound in Orkney

For once CANMORE provides no detail apart from this being a burnt mound below which at low water levels can be seen the tops of upright slabs forming an oval structure. This is on the same side of the loch as The Howie of The Manse and I feel excavation would reveal the area about it to be perhaps as complicated. Opposite the gate that gives entrance to the Grieves Cottage field is a gate to the field on the other side of the road, and you can see the (on this side slight) mound over by. When you approach this it seems more like two mounds - either that or at one time it was rather large. There are some big-ish stones in this, especially where it falls away to the shore, but I could discern no structures.

Down on the beach much of the geology seems to be flagstone pavement , including some immense slabs. Must have been low water because I could easily find various upright slabs buried about here .

Raymond Lamb in "The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Scotland , 27..." says that the drought of 1980 not only exposed this Bronze Age structure but also an erect row of slabs fifteen metres ESE of the house beside a wall, and that the waters must have risen by at least a metre since these were built (it is only 2m deep now in most of the deeper sections). Certainly some of this doesn't require even waterproof shoes to get close to. Make a nice paddle. I'm not sure I didn't see one or two extra upright scattered about as I couldn't make out the recorded structure's outline myself. Could some of the flagstones also have been part of structures, or at the very least abutted them ? Tried to decide but was unable to do so, simply a feeling. Raymond also says many crude stone implements lie on the loch bed.
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Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : L-shaped feature D (Vote or comment on this photo)

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Angled feature D and 2nd sub-divided feature E, burnt mound behind (Vote or comment on this photo)

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Dividing 'causeways' of feature C (Vote or comment on this photo)

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Feature C with angled subdivisions (Vote or comment on this photo)

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Feature B, gothic boathouse at back of image (Vote or comment on this photo)

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : circular sub-feature of feature A ?

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Feature A

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : probable settlement extent

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : typical exposure burnt mound material

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : black earth, burnt and other stones

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : more exposed material at clifftop

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : typical composition at southern end (1 comment)

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : slab in loch from oval enclosure or else that item beyond slab Orkney HY522093

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar : Orkney at HY522093

Loch of Tankerness
Loch of Tankerness submitted by howar

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 300m S 179° Grieves Cottage* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY522090)
 852m WSW 249° The Howie of The Manse* Broch or Nuraghe (HY514090)
 1.0km E 98° Taing of Beeman* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY53210914)
 1.4km SW 233° Whitecleat* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (HY511085)
 1.6km SW 214° Mill Sand* Standing Stones (HY513080)
 1.7km NW 306° Yinstay* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY50841031)
 2.0km S 188° Loch of Messigate* Standing Stones (HY519073)
 2.4km ENE 70° The Brough* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY545101)
 2.4km ENE 67° Castle of Hangie Bay* Stone Fort or Dun (HY54461022)
 2.6km S 190° Muckle Crofty* Stone Row / Alignment (HY517067)
 2.9km SSW 208° Nearhouse* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY508068)
 3.0km SSW 199° Hawell Burnt Mound* Round Barrow(s) (HY512065)
 3.3km S 183° Breck Farm* Standing Stones (HY520060)
 3.3km SSW 200° Stem Howe* Round Barrow(s) (HY510062)
 3.3km SSW 197° Longhowe Cairn (HY512061)
 3.5km SSW 198° Mine Howe* Chambered Cairn (HY5106406023)
 3.5km SSW 201° Long Howe* Long Barrow (HY509060)
 3.7km SSW 202° Round Howe* Broch or Nuraghe (HY50780591)
 3.7km SSW 203° Burn of Langskaill* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY507059)
 3.7km SE 142° Hurnip's Point* Chambered Cairn (HY54480634)
 3.8km SSW 209° Brymer* Round Barrow(s) (HY503060)
 3.9km SW 231° Craw Howe* Cairn (HY491069)
 4.2km SE 139° Eves Howe* Broch or Nuraghe (HY54900611)
 4.5km WSW 238° Staneloof* Cairn (HY48330698)
 4.7km W 278° Berstane Broch* Broch or Nuraghe (HY475100)
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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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"Loch of Tankerness" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Re: Loch of Tankerness by howar on Sunday, 24 August 2008
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Thought I'd try again for Raymond Lamb's double BA house/settlement. Between the loch banks and the loch itself is a very wide flat margin, and though the water level appears to be now lower this margin has dried out considerably. A not quite row of rectangular features has come to light (or at least become more obvious through 'drainage'), long ends facing the loch. Coming south from the gothic boathouse the first one [A] is totally dried out and would seem natural with low opposing linear rocky outcrops/walls forming the long ends with big brown slabs covering three sides and a short line of erect stones coming from landward to the northern end of the long east side. There are two stones that look to form a smal circular arc. The next depression [B] is like a cross betwen semi-circle and rectangle, it is filled with grass and there are only a few of the large brown slabs. The third feature [C] is still a pool, has well-formed sides of that low rocky outcrop (the
north side is definitely untouched natural with very long rocks as has the lochward side), no large brown slabs. Its south and east sides are fairly unformed. What is most fascinating, however, is the way that the pool is sub-divided narrow-ways by ngled 'causeways' of mostly small stones. Not all of these visibly go all the way between the long sides. They remind me of the stone rows I had seen around the Harray loch. Why not perpendicular ? My thought was fish traps [?fishponds], though I had no idea why this was sectioned up. The next dried-out pond [D] is distinctly L-shaped and regular. The last feature [E] also still holds water and almost has a complete division. With these last two you can look across at the burnt mound and [groan] ponder connections. At the Waterhall end is a drained arm of the loch, the bottom revealed by nature or artifice, I know not which. So after the Blessed Raymond's drought did the loch levels never recover in the time since or could his features now be permanently exposed but unseen ?
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Re: Loch of Tankerness by howar on Wednesday, 25 October 2006
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Much easier to identify the mound as of the burnt variety now that kie and coney have exposed the black earth. This is exposed at the top of the low cliff in several areas each four to five feet long and about three feet wide. Also the burnt material occupies much more of the cliff than just the mound itself, going towards the Gothic boathouse end where the cliff ends. At this southern end the burnt stones predominate, though this could be because the sections here are along the cliff-face, divided from the scrappy topsoil by an intermittent layer of irregular slabs. All in all the material occupies as much as two-thirds the field length. Which suggests we are dealing with a sequence of burnt mounds rather than just the one. The BA houses at water level or below perhaps preceded these, though there are protruding stones along the shore that could be the remains of ?later settlements
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