Quoyness Chambered Cairn — The Ancient Codex

Quoyness Chambered Cairn, Orkney Islands — Photo: Beep boop beep / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Quoyness is a Neolithic chambered cairn on the Elsness peninsula of Sanday, Orkney, of the Maeshowe type and probably built around 3000 BC. Originally covered with earth and turf, it sits on a wide…

Quoyness Chambered Cairn is a tomb or burial place near Sanday, Orkney, Scotland.

What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.

History

After the second excavation in the early 1950s the monument was partially restored and reconstructed to display the different original stages of its construction, and Historic Environment Scotland established it as a scheduled monument in 1994.

People

James Farrer

Antiquarian who excavated the cairn in 1867 (with George Petrie)
Portrait: Auburn University digital scan of photograph taken by unknown photogra / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

George Petrie

Antiquarian who excavated the cairn in 1867 (with James Farrer)
Portrait: Swan Watson, Andrew / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

V. Gordon Childe

Archaeologist who supervised the second excavation in 1951–1952

Cultural influences

Maeshowe-type chambered cairn tradition — a tall, steep-sided central chamber off which open small corbelled cells, the most elaborate Orkney cairn form, here built from a mix of stone, earth and waste material with horizontal slabs.

Connections

Photo: Otter at Dutch Wikipedia (Original text: Hopmans) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Maeshowe

The named type-site whose design Quoyness closely resembles
Photo: Chris Downer / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

Vinquoy chambered cairn

Related Orkney chambered cairn (Wikipedia 'see also')
Photo: David Wyatt / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

Wideford Hill chambered cairn

Related Orkney chambered cairn (Wikipedia 'see also')

Discovery & excavation

James Farrer and George Petrie excavated the cairn in 1867, having first taken the site for a broch before identifying it as a chambered cairn. A stone-lined cist in the south corner of the primary chamber held the skeletal remains of at least ten adults and possibly four children, with further remains in the side cells and entrance passage; Farrer left most of the human bones in the chamber. Other finds included animal bones, stone tools, pottery sherds, two spiked slate objects and a large knobbed bone pin — the stone objects resembling finds from western Scotland, Wales, Portugal and Spain. V. Gordon Childe led a second excavation in 1951–1952.

What to look for

The 9 m entrance passage on the southeastern side leading into the main rectangular chamber, roughly 4 by 2 m, with standing walls reaching almost 4 m.
Six small corbelled cells opening off the main chamber.
The concentric ring of stones now visible in the cairn body, and the oval stone platform with its surviving kerb on the south and west.
The modern roof added to the roofless tomb; note that access to the chambers is by crawling and can be wet.

Plan your visit

Location: 59.2256°N · 2.5682°W
Nearest settlement: Sanday
Access: Open access
Terrain: Easy going
Parking: Parking available nearby — see the official getting-here page.
Start point: On the island of Sanday on the southern point of Els Ness, 2.5m from Kettlehoft village. Reached via Orkney Ferries Ltd from Kirkwall, tel: 01856 872044. · Access to the chambers is by crawling and can be wet.
Best time: Open year-round.
Start point: Parking area north of Quoyayre, Sanday (coastal path to cairn) — Sanday is reached by Orkney Ferries from Kirkwall. HES states there is no public vehicle access beyond the parking area just north of Quoyayre; the tomb is reached on foot via the coastal path. Access into the chamber is by crawling and can be wet.