Knowes of Yonbell Two Mounds 225m and 350m NNE of Vestrafiold Sandwick, Scotland

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

The monument comprises the remains of two burial mounds dating to the Bronze Age (between about 2000 and 800 BC). The monument is visible as two upstanding, circular, turf-covered earthen mounds. The northernmost mound measures approximately 12m in diameter and survives to a height of 1m. The southernmost mound is located approximately 120m to the SSW. It is around 11m in diameter and stands 1m high and is reported to have had a stone kerb. Both mounds have been opened in antiquity: the northernmost mound contained burnt bones, and the southernmost mound a steatite urn. The monument occupies a conspicuous location on a low-lying ridge at 100m above OD with extensive views to the S: the northernmost mound would have been clearly visible on the skyline. The monument was first scheduled in 1938, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area comprises two circles on plan, centred on the mounds and each measuring 30m in diameter. The scheduled area 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 above-ground elements of the post-and-wire fence that crosses the northernmost mound.