Stebb Hill, Stronsay - Archaeology Orkney

Type:	Uncertain.
Location:	Map
Notes:	Nineteenth-century quarry (pre-1878) revealed a “Picts’ house” that “consisted of only a single chamber, although in one of the walls there was a small lintelled opening, about 20in (0.5m) wide by 12in (0.3 m) high, which may have given access to another compartment. The corbelled chamber was about 4 ft (1.2m) wide and 5 ft (1.5m) high and its floor partly covered in “rubbish”. The material used was freestone, which must have been carried to the site, but the roof was formed of large slabs of “native slate”. In 1928 the structure was described as “a much broken mound, the original outline of which is no longer recognisable”. By 1982 it had been reduced further to an amorphous vaguely oval turf-covered mound measuring at least 22m SW to NE by 17m NW to SE, but with no indication of its original size. The presence of a straight wall face suggests either the outer or inner revetment of a rectangular or square cairn, the body of which has lain to the SE.
Links:	Canmore
References:	Davidson, J. L. & Henshall, A. S. (1989). The Chambered Cairns of Orkney. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.