Cairns on the Calf of Eday

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Calf of Eday

The two Cairns on the Calf of Eday are on the small uninhabited island of Calf of Eday in the Orkney in Scotland . On the southwest coast of the Calf of Eday there are two Cairns with facilities of the Orkney-Cromarty type (OC), which used to be known as the Passage Tombs .

The round stone mound hides a small stalled cairn , the entrance of which extends imperceptibly into a chamber with four niches on both sides, which are formed by upright panels.

At the "Long Cairn" 40 m away, about 20 m long and 8.0 m wide, a corridor coming from about the east leads into an approximately 6.0 m long Stalled Cairn , which also has four niches. In the same cairn there is a two-fold small chamber of the Bookan type in a round hill, which was later built over with the long hill and is therefore inaccessible.

Excavations by Charles ST Calder (1891–1972) in 1936 revealed shattered Unstan ware pottery and flint tools .

A little uphill are the remains of an Iron Age house .

You can get to the Calf with the help of a boat from the "Eday Cooperative" on Eday Island . The archaeological objects have not been prepared for a public presentation, so a visit with an expert guide is recommended.

literature

  • Anna Ritchie, Graham Ritchie: The ancient monuments of Orkney (= Historic Scotland. ). HMSO, Edinburgh 1995, ISBN 0-11-495734-7 .
  • Charles Calder: Excavations of Three Neolithic Chambered Cairns - One with an Upper and a Lower Chamber - in the Islands of Eday and the Calf of Eday in Orkney . (including Report on the Pottery by AJH Edwards) In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Vol. 72 1937
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Web links

Coordinates: 59 ° 13'54.1 "  N , 2 ° 44'22.6"  W.