In other parts of Britain the chambered cairns had quite similar characteristics over an extensive area - though retaining individuality. For me, Orkney cairn builders showed the greatest individuality in their designs.
Orkney displays an amazing variation in style. Broadly speaking they can be divided into stalled cairns and cairns containing compartments. The cairns with compartments have narrow, longish tunnel entrances. The stalled cairns consist of a passageway marked by upright stones demarcating a 'stall'. There are hybrids containing features of both.
The cairns contained separated piles of skulls and long bones and pottery, generally broken, along with remains of animals and birds. It is not always clear whether the animals and birds entered the cairn independent of the builders.
The combination of stalls and box compartments can be seen in the houses of the living on Orkney - Skara Brae and the Knap of Howar have plenty of both.
One of the huts from Skara Brae is shown above.
I consider all chambered cairns as the equivalent of the old Christian churches and cathedrals - which also contain the graves of many people but are in no sense cemeteries. The cairns were the centre of the community, where they would have gathered at times of gladness and sadness to find refuge in their beliefs. Some of the things done there then might be repellent to us now - but then many of the past and present practices from modern religions consist of acts considered barbaric to some. Often the cairns have hornworks which indicate an open area in which the community may have gathered.
On Rousay, a small island close to the mainland of Orkney, there is a profusion of cairns. On low-lying land near the sea there is a vast long stalled cairn, Midhowe, now housed in a stone hangar.
A mile or two south and much higher up the hill we find the Knowe of Yarso cairn which is a stalled cairn but very much smaller scale. Not far away is Blackhammer cairn which whilst it is in a fairly lamentable condition despite having been restored is similar to Knowe of Yarso in that it is stalled and high up.
A little further on we find Taversoe Tuick cairn which is partway up the hill. It has a combination of stalls and box compartments and is on two floors. A yard or two downhill from the passage entrance is a recess containing yet another small chamber in which yet more remains were found.
On Orkney mainland, Unstan cairn is a stalled cairn, situated near to the salt water loch of Stenness. It is similar to Knowe of Yarso.
Far to the south on the southern end of South Ronaldsay, Isbister Cairn also known as the Tomb Of The Eagles is a hybrid containing stalls and compartments. This cairn sits overlooking high dramatic cliffs, and looks out at the coast of northern Scotland across the Pentland Firth. Unstan ware pottery was found here along with skulls and long bones, and amongst other items, talons of sea eagles. The family who own the cairn also have a superb museum and interpretative presentation, and many of the finds are on display there.
On the island of Hoy, mostly mountainous and frequently rainy, is the unique Dwarfie Stane which is a huge glacial erratic block which has been carved out with two capacious box compartments divided by an entrance. No remains were recorded though a blocking stone is present outside the door implying that there were remains at some time in the remote past. The cairn is partway up the side of a valley which bisects the island.
In the centre of Orkney mainland, on prime flat farmland, lies the epitome of chambered cairn building, Maes Howe. This contains such stunningly elegant neat stonework that it could grace fine architecture of any era. It is a massive mound within which four great straight Orkney standing stones are set in a collossal structure. It is also a henge monument, uniquely for a cairn on Orkney. This relates it to the stone circles of Stenness and Brogar which are visible from it and were in use at the same time. Maes Howe seems to be a transition from cairns to stone circles. Maes Howe has blocking stones for each of its three compartments and a unique movable rocking door stone at the entrance to the passageway.
Whilst it is unique, Maes Howe does bear some similarity to Cuween Hill cairn near Finstown not far away, which in other ways resembles the Rousay cairns such as Taversoe Tuick in that it sits halfway up a hill. Cuween Hill is smaller but has compartments of similar proportions to Maes Howe. Cuween has the same sort of corbelled roof that Maes Howe once had too.
There are many more Orkney cairns which are in ruins and some yet to be discovered no doubt but those mentioned above have been preserved and are open to visitors throughout the year.
