Midhowe, Rousay

Type:	Orkney-Cromarty. Rectangular cairn. Stalled chamber.
Location:	Map
Notes:	Prior to its excavation between 1932 and 1934, the Midhowe stalled cairn was a long, grass-covered mound about 20 metres from the southern shore of Rousay. It measured around 2.7m high with a row of slabs projecting from the surface. Excavation was instigated by the landowner Walter Grant, who, along with J. Graham Callander, gradually revealed the remains of a stalled burial chamber, described at the time as looking like “a long narrow byre, with twelve stalls on each side, separated from one another by short trevisses of slabs”.   Aligned SE-NW, the cairn is rectangular in plan with rounded corners and is 32.5m long by 13m wide. It is bounded by an elaborately built wall-face with another 1.4 to 2.3m within.   Access was by a 3.9m long and 0.8m wide entrance passage in the south-eastern end of the structure. This had been blocked at both ends, the outer face flush with the exterior of the cairn.   The chamber is 23.4m long by 2 to 2.2m wide, divided by pairs of orthostats into twelve compartments from 1.2m to 2.1m long.   Low “benches” had been constructed along the north-eastern side of the chamber, in the fifth to the eleventh compartments. The remains of at least 25 human skeletons were found, mostly lying on the benches. Some were crouched but others were very incomplete, with the bones in apparently gathered heaps. No human remains were found in the four outermost compartments. Animal bones were mixed with the human remains. The excavators found that the chamber had been filled with loose slabs, among which were animal bones and some stone tools. Two crouched skeletons in the fourth compartment were 1.2m above the floor level, one in a roughly made cist. The filling was interpreted as collapsed roof and cairn material, but it is likely that at least the lower part had been deliberately introduced to seal the chamber. At the north-western end of the cairn was evidence of secondary occupation at a higher level with a passage leading to the chamber about 0.9m above floor level. The wall of the innermost six compartments is now only 1.7m high, and, at this level, on the north-eastern side are the remains of a later wall set back 0.3 to 0.8m from the chamber walls. This addition is suggested to be the reason the height of nine inner orthostat dividers and the back slab were reduced in height. Other secondary additions were also found against the northern corner, including a cist-like box. Two walls, with an average width of 1.4m and up to 1.2m high, extend from the northern and eastern corners of the cairn. The excavators followed the northern wall for 21m and found a carefully constructed gap, 0.6m wide, 11 metres from the cairn. The eastern wall, which was traced for 13.7m, had a similar gap one metre from the cairn. Both walls had foundations 0.2-0.3m below the base of the cairn and where they abut the cairn its walls are undisturbed. The date and role of the two walls is not known. After excavation, the monument was taken into Guardianship and enclosed in a stone building. The human remains In all, the remains of 25 individuals – including adults, adolescents and children as young as two years old – were identified. [2] On each of the “benches” along the north-eastern side , except the innermost, were the remains of two to four skeletons. Nine of these were crouched, except one which appeared to have been in a sitting position: “[I]n the south-east corner were remains of the skull of an adult … the vertebrae lay along the wall and the knees were drawn up in front”. [2] Below one “bench” was a deposit said to represent two adults and a child, and on the floor on the opposite side of the chamber were “the scanty remains of an adult skeleton” [2]. It is possible these had actually started out on top but ended up on the floor after the collapse of the “benches” [1]. As well as articulated remains, there were also four heaps of bones, each suggested to represent one individual, and which are presumably the result of the later manipulation of skeletal material: “[T]he collected remains of the skeleton of an adult male, the limb bones being placed against, and parallel to, the wall, with part of the skull above them.” [2] As well as apparently complete deposits, there were also fragmentary remains, including one whole and two fragmentary skulls. The skulls of two articulated skeletons had been set upright to face the centre of the chamber.
	Early excavation notice (1934) “Mr. Walter G. Grant, F.S.A.Scot., during the summer of 1933 and 1934 excavated on his ground in Rousay two Neolithic burial monuments of a type quite new to Scottish archaeology. The name cairn, a heap of stones, is not quite appropriate, because they are really mausoleums, with carefully built walls on the outside as well as on the inside. The first, which is situated near the broch of Midhowe, to the excavation of which Mr. Grant has devoted five summers, shows a large narrow gallery resembling a byre for calves, with stalls on both sides, the travises consisting of tall narrow slabs set on end. This gallery was divided into twelve cells and yielded remains of twenty-six Neolithic skeletons, fragments of seven vessels of pottery, several of the well-known Unstan type, and one flint knife. The second cairn, the Knowe of Yarso, was much shorter and contained only three compartments with stalls on each side. In the matter of relics, it was disappointing that no fragments of Neolithic pottery were recovered, but the skeletal remains of at least a dozen individuals and more than forty flint implements were found. Fragments of a food-vessel, the first recorded from Orkney, doubtless an intrusive burial, were also discovered. This cairn displayed unique structural features. As in the case of some Caithness and Orkney neolithic cairns, it had a face of walling within the mound in addition to the outer one, but in this monument the outer wall had been built with stones laid obliquely, not on the flat. Both cairns yielded evidence that the inner ends had originally two stories. There are two more monuments of this type on the island, and we hope to excavate them in the not distant future.” Dr J. Graham Callander. Mausoleums in the Island of Rousay, Orkney. The Antiquaries Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4 (1934)
Links:	Canmore Working Stone – Midhowe The Midhowe stalled cairn, Rousay – Ness of Brodgar
References:	[1] Davidson, J. L. & Henshall, A. S. (1989). The Chambered Cairns of Orkney. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [2] Callander, J.G. and Grant, W.G. (1934) A long stalled chambered cairn or mausoleum (Rousay type) near Midhowe Rousay, Orkney. With a description of the skeletal remains. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume 68, 1933-4.