The
tomb sits on a low promontory on the south
shore of the Loch of Stenness and was excavated
in 1884. The cairn is roughly circular in
plan and about 13 metres in diameter. The
external wall-face survives to a height
of about one metre and there is a second
wall-face about one metre inside it. The
foundation for a short wall stub projects
from the cairn just north of the entrance
and there is another on the northwest side.
The
entrance passage is 6.5 metres long and
runs perpendicular to the burial chamber,
to the east-northeast. The chamber is 6.6
metres long and 1.9 metres wide in the centre
with somewhat concave walls a little over
two metres high. It is divided into five
compartments with a narrow aisle running
down the centre. There are back slabs in
each of the end compartments, which are
further distinguished by stone sills across
the entrance. In each of them there are
projecting stones about 1.2 metres above
the floor that probably supported shelves.
At about the mid point of the west wall
of the chamber is the entrance to a side
cell measuring 1 metre wide, 1.45 metres
deep and 1.2 metres high.
According
to the original excavators, the floor of
the chamber was covered by a layer of black
ashy material containing charcoal. A lot
of pottery was found in the black layer—especially
in the second compartment from the south—along
with some flint. According to the original
report, there was a considerable amount
of human and animal bone |
