Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Maes Howe
April-Sept daily 9.30am-5pm, June-Aug until 8pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 9.45am-4.30pm • £5.50; HS •
T
01856 761606
Several large burial mounds are visible to the south of the Ring of Brodgar, but these
are eclipsed by one of Europe's most impressive Neolithic burial chambers,
Maes Howe
,
less than a mile northeast of the Stones of Stenness. Dating from 3000 BC, its excellent
state of preservation is partly due to its construction from massive slabs of sandstone
weighing up to thirty tonnes. Visitors must first buy a
timed ticket
for a guided tour,
in advance or direct from Tormiston Mill by the main road, which houses the
ticket
o
ce
, toilets and interpretive display.
You enter the
central chamber
of Maes Howe down a low, long passage, one wall of
which consists of a single immense stone. Once inside, you can stand upright and
admire the superb masonry of the lofty corbelled roof. Remarkably, the tomb is aligned
so that the rays of the winter solstice sun hit the top of the Barnhouse Stone, half a
mile away, and reach right down the passage of Maes Howe to the ledge of one of the
three cells built into the walls of the tomb. When Maes Howe was opened in 1861, it
was virtually empty, thanks to the work of generations of grave-robbers, who had left
behind only a handful of human bones. The Vikings entered in the twelfth century,
7
Westray & Papa Westray
Sanday
Costa Head
Rousay
Brough Head
Egilsay
Brough
of Birsay
Eday
Earl's Palace
BIRSAY
Evie
Marwick Head
Broch
of Gurness
Wyre
Kirbuster
Twatt
Tingwall
Ness of Ork
Finstown
Dounby
RANDALL
Broch of
Borroughston
Gairsay
SANDWICK
Skara Brae
HARRAY
Shapinsay
Balfour
Ring of
Brodgar
Maes Howe
Yesnaby
Castle
Wideford Hill
(740ft)
Rerwick Head
Stones of
Stenness
Kirkwall
Stromness
Mull Head
STENNESS
Loch of
Kirbister
Ward Hill
(881ft)
DEERNESS
Graemsay
ORPHIR
Houton
Hoy
St John's
Head
HOLM
St Mary's
Old Man
of Hoy
Ward Hill
(1577ft)
Lamb
Holm
Cava
Churchill
Barriers
Scapa Flow
Dwar ie
Stane
Rackwick
Glimps
Holm
Rose Ness
Hoy
Oil
Terminal
Burray Village
Fara
Burray
Lyness
Flotta
St Margaret's Hope
Grim Ness
Hackness
Tower
N
Melsetter
House
Switha
South
Ronaldsay
Longhope
Cantick
Head
Tor Ness
South Walls
Pentland Firth
Halcro
Head
Swona
Burwick
0
4
MAINLAND AND HOY
Tomb
of the Eagles
miles
Brough Ness
Gill's Bay
John O'Groats
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