Chamber tombs on Vord Hill
The chamber tombs on Vord Hill (North, South and Vord Hill III) are the remains of heel-shaped cairns on Vord Hill in the north of the Scottish Shetland island of Fetlar . The northern part of Fetlar is a bird sanctuary, home to skuas , snipe birds and snowy owls . The Cairns are located within the bird sanctuary, which is closed to visitors from May 1st to mid-August.
Vord Hill North
The heel-shaped Cairn ( German shoulder-like cairn ) consists of about 17.0 x 12.0 m measured cairn with remnants of a facade on the south side. There is no trace of the corridor. Inside the cairn material there are two large plates perpendicular to each other, which suggest the presence of a chamber. In the south-western part of the hill the outer curb is visible along with a second and possibly third inner curb edge. To the west, adjacent to the cairn, is another cairn that may have been built with stones removed from the cairn. There are also disturbances on the north side of the cairn, including the insertion of a small enclosure. location
Vord Hill South
The best preserved heel-shaped cairn consists of a round hill measuring around 11.0 m. The chamber can still be seen and the corridor survived the looting of the hill with a few falls, the stones of which provided the walls of a double enclosure and a rectangular structure that served as a guard room during World War II. Some curbs have been preserved on the north side of the hill. location
Vord Hill III
The small heel-shaped cairn is located east of the trigonometric point near the 159 m high summit. The trigonometric point lies on a small pile of stones, the stone material of which may have come from the cairn of Vord Hill III. location
literature
- Thomas H. Bryce : The So-called Heel-shaped Cairns of Shetland, with Remarks on the Chambered Tombs of Orkney and Shetland. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Vol., 1939, ISSN 0081-1564 , pp. 23-36 .