Taversoe Tuick – the subterranean outer chamber

By Sigurd Towrie

While investigating the extent of the platform around the Taversoe Tuick, the 1937 excavators chanced upon another subterranean feature lying just over seven metres to the south-east.

There, the removal of a “loose stone” revealed the entrance to a small, horseshoe-shaped chamber that had been “hewn out of the rock”. [1]

Measuring just 1.6 metres long, 1.1 metres wide and a mere 85cm high, the underground cell is tiny and cramped.

Because it, like the neighbouring lower chamber, had been built into a rock-cut pit, the cell has a flat, bedrock floor, with curving but vertically-straight stone walls – of “precisely and perfectly built masonry” – lining the sides.

Its low roof is formed by three stone lintels.

Four upright stones project radially into the cell, reminiscent of the orthostatic dividers found in tripartite Neolithic cairns. [2]

Although barely protruding from the cell walls – ranging from 7cm to 30cm – the slabs appear to define three side areas, or compartments, and the entrance threshold.

Access was by an unlined, rock-cut entrance to the south-west.

At only 50cm wide and 75cm long, it was entered by dropping into it from above and ducking under a lintel running across the width, just 50cm above the floor level.

The entrance, however, is unlike the typical passages leading into chambered cairns, leading it to be described as a an extension to the main cell. [2]

Dubbed the “miniature chamber” by Grant, although the cell’s layout is reminiscent of known Orcadian chambered cairns, e.g., the Calf of Eday South East and Crantit, no human remains were found within.

It did, however, contain round-bottomed Early Neolithic pottery – two complete vessels and the sherds of two others. [1]

Connecting channel

Of particular interest was the fact the outer cell – which has intriguing parallels to the Sandfiold cist – lay at the end of a channel running from the entrance of the Taversoe Tuick’s lower chamber.

The narrow gully ran for almost six metres from the lower entrance passage.

Stone-lined and covered, it tapered from 0.46m at its widest to a mere 0.06m at the point it ended – a mere 60cm from the entrance to the outer cell.

It was first encountered by the Burroughs in 1898, when it was interpreted as a drain to carry water away from the main structure. But even back then Lady Burroughs (who did not know about the existence of the outer chamber) considered this to be unlikely:

The 20th century excavation seemed to corroborate Lady Burroughs’ comments. During particularly heavy rainfall in July 1938, it was noted that the channel remained dry. [1]

In addition, Grant noted:

Questioning why anyone would build a drain to run-off into another structure, he added:

So, what was the miniature cell for?

Some years later, Audrey Henshall proposed it was “a half-scale model of a burial chamber”:

I don’t know whether Professor Vere Gordon Childe was thinking along the same lines, but he referred to the drain-like gully as a “ghost channel” – a trough “through which a ghost, but no living man, could crawl.” [4]

Henshall had suggested something similar for the Wideford Hill cairn, proposing that a chimney-like shaft in the roof was a conduit to allow the living to converse with the dead. The theory proposes that echoes of their distorted words came back and could be interpreted as they (or a mediator) wished – although it should be noted that was no trace of human remains within the chamber.

It’s a lovely idea but at the Taversoe Tuick, at least, I’m not convinced.

That said, however, some impromptu (but not very scientific) experiments in the summer of 2022 did confirm that it is possible to hear noise from the outer cell in the lower chamber.

But it’s highly debatable as to how much that had to do with the covered channel and not the simple fact the chamber entrance is only a few metres away from the outer cell. Not to mention that it was a calm, still day with no wind. A rarity in Orkney.

Was it a drain? Maybe. So why did it terminate at the entrance to another structure?

The simple answer is that we cannot assume something we regard as mundane and purely functional was considered the same in the Neolithic. Was it, for example, a route or passage for the dead? Or perhaps involved in the treatment/handling of decomposing corpses?

All questions to which, as yet, we have no answers.

Is it contemporary?

Whatever the role of the outer chamber – and it’s entirely possible it was never used – as always there’s a caveat. Can we be sure it was contemporary with the neighbouring chambered cairn?

The answer is no.

As mentioned, the miniature chamber has a passing resemblance to other Orcadian chambered cairns. But over the years it has also been likened to Bronze Age architecture and even Iron Age souterrains [5] (or earth-houses as they’re known in Orkney).

The chamber sits directly beside the boundary of the later stone platform laid around the Taversoe Tuick.

While this could mean it was an addition relating to Bronze Age remodelling of the chambered cairn, it may be that the platform builders simply stopped at an existing obstacle.

Jumping forward in time, Iron Age additions to already ancient, Neolithic sites are found across Orkney.

In Rousay we have examples at Midhowe and the Knowe of Rowiegar. The latter, a stalled cairn a short distance from the Taversoe Tuick, was extensively altered in the Iron Age to create a souterrain. [2]

That said, the relationship between the Taversoe Tuick, its miniature chamber and the channel that connects them both does suggest we’re looking at contemporary constructions.

The presence of Unstan Ware pottery at the entrance is indicative of an early Neolithic date, but, again, we need to be wary.

Although Unstan Ware was long thought to be representative of the Early Neolithic in Orkney, and later supplanted by Grooved Ware pottery, it has now been proposed both styles were still in use between 3100BC and 3000BC at least. [6]

The two complete round-bottomed pots found at the outer chamber’s entrance. (📷 David Wilson/Orkney SMR)

There is also the possibility that the pots were deposited at a much later date – perhaps relocated from one of the Taversoe Tuick’s chambers. The fact two were undamaged suggests they were placed in the cramped cell after it went out of use and footfall had ceased.

If the pots were part of a closing deposit, according to Grant there was no evidence at the entrance of “constructed or deliberate blocking”, with “only a little debris and stone filling [it] up…” [1]

But given the “clean and dry” conditions within – not to mention the preservation of the pottery inside – it seems highly unlikely that the entrance shaft was left open to the elements (and local wildlife). Certainly after its abandonment and presumably during the time of its hypothetical use.

Although Grant’s 1939 excavation report makes no mention of a cover, one can’t help but wonder if the single, narrow slab that rests on top of the entrance’s rock-cut sides was a support for one or more flagstones.

Again, it’s not clear from the report but was Grant’s “loose stone”, the removal of which led to the cell’s discovery, actually part of an entrance cover?

It may well have been.

According to Grant: “Very little soil had percolated into the chamber past the crude blocking, if such it were…” [1]

The “crude blocking” he referred to was his “loose stone”. As we’ve seen, there was no evidence of blocking material in the outer cell akin to that Grant had encountered in other chambered cairns.

Notes

• [1] Grant, W. (1939) Excavations on behalf of HM Office of works at Taiverso Tuick, Trumland, Rousay. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume 73, 1938-39, pp. 155-166).
• [2] Henshall, A. (1985) The Chambered Cairns. In The Prehistory of Orkney, ed Renfrew, C. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• [3] Reynolds, D. M. (1985) ‘How we found a tumulus’ a story of the Orkney Islands — The Journal of Lady Burroughs. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Vol. 115, pp. 115-124).
• [4] Childe, V. G. (1952) Illustrated Guide to Ancient Monuments in the ownership or guardianship of the Ministry of Works – Volume VI Scotland. HMSO: Edinburgh.
• [5] Marwick, H. (1952) Ancient Monuments in Orkney.
• [6] Bayliss, A., Marshall, P., Richards, C. and Whittle, A. (2017) Islands of History: The Late Neolithic timescape of Orkney. Antiquity, 91(359), pp. 1171–1188.)