(Haco’s Ness)
| Type: | Perhaps Orkney-Cromarty. Possible long cairn. Tripartite chamber. |
| Location: | Map |
| Notes: | A badly damaged and disturbed mound, featuring six orthostats in a large chamber orientated NE to SW. These, together with a large back slab, suggested an Orkney-Cromarty type stalled cairn. Following a site visit in 1981, Davidson and Henshall reported that the cairn had been extensively robbed and “its area disturbed particularly by vague secondary structures to the south of the chamber before the relatively modern walls were built.” The first edition OS map in 1882 shows what appears to be a rectangular agricultural enclosure around the cairn, which backs up the suggestion from a September 2022 visit that it seems to have been for funnelling and containing livestock (probably sheep). In 1928 it was recorded that “a skull was found here some years ago” while the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland records state that “a burial” was said “to have been found here or hereabouts”. Whether these human remains represent the same burial and, if so, whether they actually related to the cairn is not clear. In this regard, it is interesting to note the presence of Dead Wife’s Geo a short distance to the south-east of the cairn. |
| Links: | Canmore |
| References: | Davidson, J. L. & Henshall, A. S. (1989). The Chambered Cairns of Orkney. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. |
