into the north-western slope of Wideford Hill, a few miles from
Kirkwall, is the Wideford Cairn. Around 328 feet above sea-level, this prehistoric structure is a Maeshowe-type cairn dating
from around 3,000 BC.
Built on a steep hillside over looking the Bay
o' Firth, the cairn's builders quarried into the slope to create
a level platform on which to build their monument.
Unlike most other cairns in Orkney, Wideford's exterior
stonework is visible today, lending the structure a "stepped"
appearance, made up of three concentric rings. The cairn's earthen
covering was removed after the monument was taken into state care,
in the 1900s, but originally it probably looked like a domed mound
within a retaining wall.
These days access to the chamber is through the
roof, the original western entrance being 17.4 feet long and less
than two feet high and wide.
Inside the cairn, three small side cells branch
off from the main rectangular chamber, which is about five feet
wide and ten feet long at floor level, but much narrower at head
height. The side chambers are then built into the north, east and
During the 1849 excavation, no recognisable human
remains were found, only a quantity of animal bones (cow, horse,
boar, sheep and deer) among the rubble filling the main chamber.
There were no traces of pottery either, which, coupled with the absence
of remains, seems to indicate that the cairn had fallen out of regular
use before it was finally sealed.
The final ritual act surrounding the tomb was
its deliberate filling with debris.
When the cairn was opened in 1849,
the main chamber was found to be almost entirely full of rubble.
The height of this rubble was above the level of the entrance passage
which seemed to indicate that the material had been thrown into
the chamber from the roof.
Closer investigation revealed a chimney-like structure
that may have been built solely for this purpose.
Communing with the spirits of the dead?
A number of cairns in Ireland, and most recently
the Crantit cairn in St Ola,
have what are described as a "light slots" built into
Along with the theory that these slots allowed light
to enter the chambers at specific times of the year, it has also
been suggested that they may have been used for offerings of some
Perhaps most interesting of all is the idea that
the slots allowed the living, who undoubtedly participated in some
form of ancestor worship, to converse with the spirits of the dead.
An intriguing theory is that the narrow slot could
been used as some form of an oracle.
People might seek the advice
of the ancients by asking their questions through the slot - the
echoes of their distorted words coming back as an answer could then
be interpreted as they wished.
If this is the case, could the chimney-structure
in the chamber roof, although definitely used to fill in the chamber
at a later date, have had an earlier purpose?
For more information about theories relating to
acoustics and the design of chambered cairns, click