Muckle Hill of Linkataing Chambered Cairn, Homestead and Field System Eday, Scotland

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

The monument comprises three discrete archaeological entities. The principal monument consists of four stones in a regular setting which may represent the remains of the chamber of a chambered tomb. The second component, 120m to the NW, is a sub-circular walled structure, interpreted as a dwelling. At its centre is a large saddle quern partially buried by peat topsoil. The third component is a curvilinear stone wall that has been exposed by peat cutting. The stone wall lies between 150m and 200m NE of the remains of the chambered tomb. The monument was first scheduled in 1936 and was re-scheduled in 1994 but an inadequate area was included to protect all of the archaeological remains: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

The putative chambered tomb consists of three earthfast slabs and a fourth lying flat on the ground surface. These appear to represent two parallel pairs of slabs aligned NNE-SSW. The northern slabs of each pair lie 1.8m apart. The two western stones are set 0.9m apart; the northern stone stands 2.05m high and its southern counterpart measures 1.55m high. The northern slab of the eastern pair stands 0.45m high. It is thought to be broken. Its southern, prone, partner appears to be intact and measures 3.2m long. This group of four slabs is interpreted as the collapsed vestiges of the chamber of a tomb but no trace of a cairn has been detected and no discoveries of human remains are recorded. In 1957 a long thin slab was just visible against the W face of the northern slab of the western pair but there is now no trace of this fragment.

The probable dwelling consists of two, possibly three, low banks - possibly consisting of earth and stone - that define an area measuring approximately 8m by 6m. At the centre lies a large, earthfast saddle quern.

Peat cutting has exposed some 350m of the dyke. The box-like compartments reported by the previous surveyors are now only visible at two points. A second dyke lies to the NE end of the first dyke and traces of other walls are visible towards the sea. The two dykes each appear to form 2 sides of large abutting enclosures. Immediately upslope from the chambered tomb other linear stone settings are exposed in breaks in the eroding peat and it is likely that further loss of the peat cover will reveal a complex remains of enclosures or dykes.

The area to be scheduled is a rectangle of dimensions 400m SW-NE and 300m SE-NW, to include the three principal components plus an area around in which evidence relating to their separate construction and use may survive, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract. The top 30cm of the vehicle track within the area is excluded from scheduling to allow for its maintenance.