Unstan Chambered Cairn

The tomb was built on a promontory that extends into the Loch of Stenness, it is notable as an atypical hybrid of the two main types of chambered cairn found in Orkney,

The oval cairn contains a chamber that is 8.4 m long and up to two meters wide and divided into nine segments. The room, which is slightly bulging on the long sides, is divided by partially damaged slabs that protrude from the dry stone walls on both sides. The round mound, the lateral entrance (7.8 m long) and a centrally located side chamber are unusual for structures of the stalled cairn type. The removed roof of the structure was replaced by a modern concrete ceiling after the state took over the structure in the 1930s.

Human remains were found in Unstan – there were two crouched skeletons in the side cell, several more in the main compartment, and a number of bones were scattered throughout the rest of the tomb. Animal bones and charcoal were found as well.

It is possible that Unstan was in use well into the second millennium BC; an arrowhead was discovered in the tomb that is characteristic of the Beaker People who lived from the Late Neolithic into the Bronze Age. Moreover, burials in the crouched position were not practiced in the Neolithic.

Unstan was built around 5300 years ago and is probably one of the oldest monuments in the centre of the Neolithic Orkney Islands.