Tombs of the Isles

This project celebrated, researched and shared the stories of Neolithic tombs in Orkney’s North Isles of Orkney.

An activities programme of research, walks, arts workshops, archaeological fieldwork (survey, geophysics, excavation) and school workshops explored some of the well-known and lesser-known burial monuments, setting them in a wider context.

With the help of island-based volunteers, we created island specific “Tomb Archives”, feeding into those the results of new fieldwork to make an up-to-date catalogue of these monuments.

The Neolithic

The Neolithic sits at the heart of the imagination and identity of Orkney.

Beginning some 5,500 years ago, and spanning a staggering 2,500 years, the Neolithic was when people first farmed the land, grew crops, made pottery and adopted new forms of objects such as polished axes and maceheads.

It is also the time when communities started to build substantial permanent houses, first of timber and then stone, for both the living and the dead.

The Neolithic was a time when people’s relationship with the dead and their ancestors changed. People were now buried communally in tombs, where bones and other offerings were jumbled together into one ancestral being.

In Orkney, there are over 81 stone-built tombs of various architectural styles – ‘Maeshowe’, ‘Stalled’ and ‘Bookan’ types – with 53 of these (65%) located in the North Isles (Rousay, 16, Eday, 12 and Westray, 9, with particularly high numbers).

In Orkney, there has been a long history of investigations into tombs and more recently settlements and houses.

The Tombs of the Isles project took a community-focused approach to Neolithic funerary sites in Orkney. The project team worked with islanders to explore burial monuments in the North Isles, conduct new and original research and put this into a regional and national context.

Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology
UHI Archaeology Institute, Orkney College, Kirkwall
Email: enquiries.orca@uhi.ac.uk
Facebook: Archaeology Institute UHI
Twitter: @UHIArchaeology
Tel: 01856 569345

Project partners: National Museum of Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, University of Bradford, University of Lancashire.
Funding: North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme.