Meur Burnt Mound

Archaeological place

Explorer Tom

Meur Burnt Mound on Sanday has already dodged the sea once, which is more than most Bronze Age buildings can put on their visiting card. The stones you see beside Sanday Heritage Centre were carefully brought here from an eroding shore, so this ancient puzzle has a second address and a splendid survival story. A severe storm exposed part of the mound in 2005. Archaeologists first wondered whether it was a burial, but excavation uncovered a stone-built water trough, paving, compartments, a well and heaps of fire-cracked stones. People heated stones and put them into water; exactly what they wanted the hot water for remains a mystery. Cooking, bathing and other uses have all been suggested, but nobody has unearthed an instruction manual, despite what any overconfident prehistoric plumber might tell you. Winter storms in 2012 and 2013 damaged the coastal site further. Sanday residents and archaeologists dismantled its main elements and rebuilt them by the new heritage centre in 2014. Excavation showed two Bronze Age phases. Under the great base slab lay an even older Neolithic well. Orkney weather accidentally revealed a remarkable stack of human activity. The rebuilt mound stands beside Sanday Heritage Centre. Check the centre's current opening details if you also want its indoor displays; the outdoor reconstruction is the reason for this stop. Look at the trough, picture stones heating by a fire, and decide what you think the hot water was for. The people who built it have had several thousand years to keep the answer to themselves.

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What is recorded here

Map note: The map marks Meur Burnt Mound as an ancient site near Lady Village, Orkney Islands, Scotland. The past can keep its secrets; the map gives you a starting point.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n5509239274