Description

The monument comprises several burnt mounds, prehistoric cooking places believed to date to the Bronze Age. One mound is arguably the largest such monument so far noted in Shetland, if not Scotland.

The main feature is a rather amorphous grass-covered mound of burnt stones measuring some 42m by 37m and standing up to 3.7m above surrounding ground level. This mound is almost certainly composed of a number of lesser mounds which have coalesced over time. It has been cut by a drainage ditch in relatively recent years.

Adjacent, to the NE, is a further mound, much disturbed, measuring 19m by 13m and up to 1.9m high. To the NW, some 50m away from the nearest edge of the largest mound, is a third example, which measures about 20m N-S by 9m, and has been so quarried in the centre as to appear almost as two separate mounds.

The area to be scheduled is in two parts: around the first and second mounds, which are adjacent, an area 80m E-W by 45m, and around the third mound, an area 30m E-W by 60m. The extent of the area to be scheduled is indicated on the accompanying map by two areas marked in red.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a fine and exceptionally large group of burnt mounds, which appear to have been disturbed only superficially and may therefore conceal important evidence about the date, use and method of accumulation of such monuments, as well as evidence relating to land use and environmental conditions at the date of their creation.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland