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Mine Howe is an
Its walls are lined with stones fitted to form an arch over the cavity and 29 steps lead to a rock floor. The entrance is at the top of the small hill and there are indications of other Iron Age and earlier activity around the site. A flight of stone steps descend to a half-landing where they turn back on themselves and further steps descend to a chamber. This chamber is only about in diameter but is over four metres high with a
Minehowe - The Underground Enigma
/ref>
Mine Howe Home Page
{{coord, 58.938766, N, 2.852267, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title 1st-millennium BC architecture in Scotland Iron Age sites in Scotland Bronze Age sites in Scotland Prehistoric Orkney Archaeological sites in Orkney Mainland, Orkney
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
subterranean
Subterranean(s) or The Subterranean(s) may refer to:
* Subterranea (geography), underground structures, both natural and man-made
Literature
* ''Subterranean'' (novel), a 1998 novel by James Rollins
* ''Subterranean Magazine'', an American fa ...
man-made chamber dug 6 meters (20 feet) deep inside a large mound. It is located in the Tankerness
Tankerness is a district in the St Andrews parish in Mainland, Orkney, Scotland.Wenham, Shiela "The East Mainland" in Omand (2003) p. 198 Essentially a peninsula, it is about south-east of Kirkwall and east of Kirkwall Airport.
area of Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, Scotland, about 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Kirkwall
Kirkwall ( sco, Kirkwaa, gd, Bàgh na h-Eaglaise, nrn, Kirkavå) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland.
The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name (''Church Bay''), which later changed to ''Kirkv ...
, the capital of Orkney. The origin of the howe (from Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
word ''haugr'' meaning barrow) is not perfectly understood. Experts believe that it was built roughly 2000 years ago during the Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
. There is some similarity to the well inside the Iron Age Broch of Gurness
The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village on the northeast coast of Mainland Orkney in Scotland overlooking Eynhallow Sound, about 15 miles north-west of Kirkwall. It once housed a substantial community.
Description
Settlement here beg ...
.
Description
Its walls are lined with stones fitted to form an arch over the cavity and 29 steps lead to a rock floor. The entrance is at the top of the small hill and there are indications of other Iron Age and earlier activity around the site. A flight of stone steps descend to a half-landing where they turn back on themselves and further steps descend to a chamber. This chamber is only about in diameter but is over four metres high with a corbelled
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...
roof. The bottom step into this chamber is high and gives it a cistern-like appearance. At the half-landing two subsidiary chambers/passages open out, one above the other. Most of the structure is lined with beautifully built dry-stone walling.
Discovery
It was first explored in 1946 and misidentified as an Iron Agebroch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy.
Origin ...
. After the 1940s excavations were finished, Mine Howe was covered over and left untouched and nearly forgotten for almost 50 years. Douglas Paterson, a farmer who owned the land at the time, rediscovered the site in 1999. He removed material that had filled in during the intervening years and built a small wooden entrance over the opening. He built stairs leading down into the chamber and allowed visitors inside.
In June 2000, the archaeological television programme ''Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...
'' came to Mine Howe to help with further excavations and explore the structure. In order to work out how it had been built, ''Time Team'' had a small replica built nearby. Sections of a ditch surrounding the mound were also excavated, along with what was apparently an earthen path allowing visitors access to the site. No firm conclusions have been made about the age or the purpose of Mine Howe./ref>
See also
*Broch of Gurness
The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village on the northeast coast of Mainland Orkney in Scotland overlooking Eynhallow Sound, about 15 miles north-west of Kirkwall. It once housed a substantial community.
Description
Settlement here beg ...
References
External links
Mine Howe Home Page
{{coord, 58.938766, N, 2.852267, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title 1st-millennium BC architecture in Scotland Iron Age sites in Scotland Bronze Age sites in Scotland Prehistoric Orkney Archaeological sites in Orkney Mainland, Orkney