page_title: Chambered cairn
section_title: Maeshowe
hierarchical_section_title: Chambered cairn / Scotland / Maeshowe
caption_attribution_description: South wall with entrance passage of Maeshowe Chambered Cairn, Orkney
context_page_description: A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are found throughout Britain and Ireland, with the largest number in Scotland.
  Typically, the chamber is larger than a cist, and will contain a larger number of interments, which are either excarnated bones or inhumations. Most were situated near a settlement, and served as that community's "graveyard".
context_section_description: The Maeshowe group, named after the famous Orkney monument, is among the most elaborate. They appear relatively late and only in Orkney and it is not clear why the use of cairns continued in the north when their construction had largely ceased elsewhere in Scotland. They consist of a central chamber from which lead small compartments, into which burials would be placed. The central chambers are tall and steep-sided and have corbelled roofing faced with high quality stone.
  In addition to Maeshowe itself, which was constructed c. 2700 BC, there are various other examples from the Orkney Mainland. These include Quanterness chambered cairn (3250 BC) in which the remains of 157 individuals were found when excavated in the 1970s, Cuween Hill near Finstown which was found to contain the bones of men, dogs and oxen and Wideford Hill cairn, which dates from 2000 BC.
  Examples from elsewhere in Orkney are the Vinquoy cairn, found at an elevated location on the north end of the island of  Eday and Quoyness on Sanday constructed about 2900 BC and which is surrounded by an arc of Bronze Age mounds. The central chamber of Holm of Papa Westray South cairn is over 20 metres long.
caption: The interior of Maeshowe
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