Ronas Hill
The Rona Hill (or Rönies Hill) (450 m) on the peninsula Northmavine the Shetland Mainland is the highest point of the Shetland Islands in Scotland . On the top there is a neolithisches chamber grave ( English chambered tomb ) in a Cairn . Ronas Hill (from Old Norse: rön) means stony ground or rubble. The Cairn is listed as a Scheduled Monument .
On the hill ( Marilyn ) lies a Neolithic chamber tomb in an unusual location. Most of the surviving Neolithic British cairns are not on the tops of higher hills. According to information from local farmers, the cairn contained a large number of offerings, including very old coins, until the mid-1970s.
Originally, it was believed that it was a heel-shaped cairn typical of Shetland , with a concave facade with a central entrance and a rounded rear end giving it a stepped shape. The entrance is followed by a short corridor that opens into a simple chamber. The changes on the hill, however, no longer allow an exact classification.
In this case, the corridor, which leads to a transverse, rectangular, 1.7 × 0.9 meters measuring and almost one meter high chamber made of five stone slabs on the sides, is about 2.4 meters long. The concave facade (see Vementry ) is no longer there and the nature of the rounded stern is questionable. The Ronas Hill Cairn indicates a rebuilding of its upper structure due to the lack of lichen on the stones above the access. The top of pink granite stones is clearly visible from the valley and may have been raised to serve as a nautical mark. The cairn was also apparently modified by soldiers during a military exercise in the 1960s when a wall was built around its entrance.
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. 74, 1939, pp. 23-36, ( digital version (PDF; 1.26 MB) ).
- James L. Davidson, Audrey S. Henshall: The Chambered Cairns of Caithness. An Inventory of the Structures and Their Contents. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1991, ISBN 0-7486-0256-9 .
- Audrey S. Henshall, JN Graham Ritchie: The Chambered Cairns of Sutherland. An inventory of the structures and their contents. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1995, ISBN 0-7486-0609-2 .
- Anna Ritchie: Shetland (= Exploring Scotland's Heritage. ). 2nd edition. HMSO, Edinburgh, 1997, ISBN 0-11-495289-2 , p. 135, no. 70.
- RCAHMS - The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland: Twelfth report with an inventory of the ancient monuments of Orkney and Shetland. Volume 3. HMSO, Edinburgh 1946, pp. 94-95, no. 1364, PI 32, 612.
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 60 ° 32 ′ 2.1 ″ N , 1 ° 26 ′ 45.8 ″ W.