a Summary

This cairn, one of the five Cairns on Warehouse hill, was built over 5000 years ago, in the Neolithic period. People then often built large stone cairns in prominent places, cairns that housed the bones of their dead in separated compartments. But only some of the bones of the dead! Interestingly, there is little evidence that whole skeletons were laid in these cairns. More usual is that the different bones found within them come from a number of individuals, almost as though the bones were samples, perhaps carefully chosen, from those who died.

This type of cairn is common throughout northern Scotland from Cromarty on the Black Isle to the Northern Isles. Hence the cairn-type is often known as Orkney-Cromarty cairns. Typically, there would be an entrance passageway on the eastern side of the cairn, continuing into a series of 2-3 internal burial chambers which were separated by upright slabs. The chambers were then roofed by huge stone slabs and covered with a mass of stones to form a tall burial mound. Consider the work that was involved in moving all these stones uphill!

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This cairn was originally thought to be a typical Orkney-Cromarty cairn but more detailed surveying in the late 1970's revealed that it had been enclosed within a long cairn that stretches to the south-west (in the direction of the wind farm). The end of this SW "tail" was  defined during excavation in 2013, and can still be seen today. The inside of this cairn has been much affected by 150 years of excavation, robbing and surveying. However, the tops of the upright stones that separated the original chambers can still be seen. 

A bit more...

In 1853 Henry Rhind excavated this cairn.. It was one of the first cairns in Caithness to be scientifically examined, with Rhind making careful notes of what was found in each of the different components of the cairn. Subsequently, in 1865 two local archaeologists -Joseph Anderson and Robert Shearer - recovered human and animal bone, some burnt, from the chambers. In their surveying and recording, they paid particular attention to the structural elements of the cairn. Like many sites across Caithness the cairn had been used as a quarry before the 19th century excavations and since that date the monument continues to decay. 
 
The cairn was subsequently surveyed by Audrey Henshall for a 1963 publication, and revisited and described by Davidson & Henshall in 1991. Originally believed to have been a simple round cairn, observations by P J Ashmore in 1982 during Ordnance Survey mapping soon after some heather burning, suggested that it is a much denuded long cairn. Mounds of debris, believed to have been emptied from the chamber during the Rhind excavations, lie outwith the entrance area. These mounds may actually form hornworks in the entrance area, which would help to confirm the long cairn hypothesis. A 2013 community excavation led by John Barber of AOC Archaeology, cleared the central chamber allowing a detailed survey using modern methods. This excavation helped to consolidate the site, removing a modern marker cairn, and then backfilled the central chamber to prevent further collapse.