Bookan Chambered Cairn 300m SSE of Buckan Cottage Sandwick, Scotland

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

The monument is a burial cairn of Orkney-Cromarty type, dating from the Neolithic period (fourth to third millennium BC). It is visible as a roughly circular grass-covered mound, approximately 16m in overall diameter and standing up to 1.2m high. The cairn was partly excavated in 1861 and re-excavated in 2002 and much of its internal structure is still visible ' a central passageway, with upright slabs and the compartment spaces. The cairn has two major phases of construction. The original tomb was oval in shape and measured approximately 7m by 5m. After it had fallen into disrepair, it was incorporated into a larger cairn around 16m in diameter and 'monumentalised' by the addition of three concentric stone revetments. A passageway, 2m long by 0.5m wide, enters the cairn from the SSE. It leads to a central chamber, 2m long by 1.4m wide. There are five side chambers symmetrically arranged around the central chamber, all of which are 1.3m long by 0.9m wide. The cairn is situated on a gentle SE-facing slope at approximately 25m above sea level, overlooking the Ness of Brodgar. The monument was originally scheduled in 1938, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan, 30m in diameter, centred on the monument. The scheduling includes the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduling specifically excludes the top 30cm of the surface of the farm track to the NW of the cairn and the above-ground elements of all post-and-wire fences to allow for their maintenance.