Maes Howe
Chambered Cairn
HY 318 128
On the A965, 9 miles west of Kirkwall, signposted. Admission charge – £2.80
As we could see there were few people here we decided to visit, dreading a coach would turn up at any moment.
This structure ranks as one of the best preserved prehistoric monuments in Europe. The mound is set on a low earth platform that is surrounded by a ditch and a bank. Entry is along a low narrow passage where the walls contain massive stone slabs. Just inside the entrance is a recess containing the block of stone used to seal off the chamber. The passage enters a square chamber midway along the side walls there are entries to side chambers. Corner buttresses can be seen supporting the corbelling of the roof. The capstone is modern as the original was broken, possibly by the Norse “visitors” who left runic graffiti and animal carvings on some of the stones inside the chamber. No contents were found in the tomb as the Vikings used it for some time and would have cleared it out.
The Barnhouse Stone
A feature of the site is that the winter solstice sun sets directly over the Barnhouse Stone, ½ mile away, and shines down the entrance passage onto the stones on the back wall of the chamber. The sun still shines down the passage each winter and they have set up a website that will webcam the event. The sunlight tracks from the lower left corner up to centre of the back wall then back as the sun sets.
The guide gives an interesting talk about the site and he points out and translates the runes and will shine his torch while you try and photograph them. They are the largest concentration of rune carvings outside Scandinavia.
Examples of Norse runic graffiti
The quality of the stonework is high and the stones fit very neatly together. Some of the slabs are huge such as the entrance passage and the side chamber lintels.
The entrance passage
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