Documents

Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).

The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM5080_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600010984)

Summary

Description

The monument was first scheduled in 1991, and the protected area is being extended to cover additional important remains identified by recent fieldwork. The monument comprises an area including numerous cairns and mounds, enclosures formed by banks, a round house, mounds containing houses and other settlement remains, field systems and ancient anthropogenic soils.

The area includes six large, turf-covered artificial mounds, several denuded sandy stony banks, an enclosure and over 50 smaller mounds. Of the large mounds one may be a broch. It survives as a mound about 30.0m in diameter and 1.2m high with a rim of stony material around its top enclosing a slight hollow about 12.0m in diameter. Another of these mounds, of earth and stones, measures about 15.0m in diameter and 0.8m high and is a possibly a cairn.

Another mound measures about 33.0m in diameter with a smaller mound about 11.0m in diameter surmounting it, making a total height of 2.8m. Several upright slabs protrude through the turf. Another mound measures about 22.0m in diameter and 1.1m high. Shelly Knowe is a crescentic-shaped mound, 1.8m high. It is a settlement site. Another mound, about 12.0m in diameter and 0.8m high displays a content of stone.

The sandy stony banks, spread to about 3.0m and 0.4m in height, incorporate at least 11 smaller stony mounds, averaging 7.0m in diameter. Within the east side of the enclosure is the western arc of an apparently once circular bank and a turf-covered mound about 9.5m in diameter and 0.6m high. The area covered by the scheduling also includes a rectangular area about 55.0m N-S by 40.0m E-W, bounded by sandy heaps which may conceal structures.

Both within and outside the area enclosed by the stony banks and the sea are at least 50 turf-covered mounds from 6.0m to 12.0m in diameter. Some are almost certainly natural sandy knolls, but others may be cairns or field clearance heaps. There are also traces of comparatively recent cultivation in the area.

The area of the extended scheduling comprises four separate sub-areas: the previously scheduled area measuring about 740m N-S by up to 340m E-W bounded to north and east by the high water mark; a circular area 100m in diameter centred on the centre of Shelly Knowe; an oval area measuring 100m N-S by 60m E-W centred some 300m WSW of Shelly Knowe and containing a settlement site and nearby layers of ancient man-made soils and other artificial features;

and a trapezoidal area containing a mound, banks and layers of ancient man-made soils bounded to the north by the high water mark of ordinary spring tides, its east side (on the west side of and excluding a drain) measuring 400m N-S, its south side measuring 275m E-W and its west side (on the east side of and excluding a drain) measuring 400m NNE-SSW, all as shown in red on the accompanying map extract.

Statement of National Importance

The importance of the area lies in its richness, the rarity of survival of similar prehistoric landscapes on calcareous sand, and in its representativeness of what is known to have been common before agricultural improvement in Orkney and by extension other Scottish agricultural counties. The individual components of the complex merit scheduling as of national importance. The group, despite recent damage, is outstandingly important to the themes of prehistoric land management, relationship of burial cairns to agricultural systems, and to prehistoric settlement.

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

Scheduled monument consent is required to carry out certain work, including repairs, to scheduled monuments. Applications for scheduled monument consent are made to us. We are happy to discuss your proposals with you before you apply and we do not charge for advice or consent. More information about consent and how to apply for it can be found on our website at www.historicenvironment.scot.

Find out more about scheduling and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.