Wasbister Mounds SSE of the Brecks Sandwick, Scotland

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

The monument consists of three probable burial mounds on the crest of the hill at Wasbister and an area around them in which evidence of burial practices is likely to survive.

The three mounds are at Ordnance Survey grid references HY 2859 1427, HY 2857 1426 and HY 2860 1422 on top of Wasbister hill, at the east side of a quarry. The more northerly of the three measures 20.6m N-S by 16.2m transversely, and from 2.5m high on its N side to 1.0m on the S. A near-circular depression, c.6.0m in diameter, occurs at the centre of the mound, where many small stones can be seen.

An old farm track separates it from another of the mounds which measures approximately 13.0 m in diameter by 1.7 m high on the north side and 0.8 m high on the south side. The slopes on its west side merge with the east side of a stone quarry. The most southerly, a grass-covered mound 1.7m high, containing many small stones, has a small depression in its top.

It is oval on plan, measuring 23.7m N-S by 15.7m transversely. A cist reported as having been discovered previously in a mound near The Brecks may have come from one of these mounds or from a mound destroyed by the quarry. The small mound near the edge of the quarry NW of the southernmost of the mounds described above may be quarry spoil.

The area to be scheduled is rectangular and measures 48m E-W by 90m N-S with its NW corner 2m W of the corner post of the fence round The Brecks. It includes the three mounds described above and an area around them in which evidence relating to their construction and use is likely to survive, as marked in red on the accompanying map.