Maeshowe Chambered Cairn

Make sure you book a tour as it fills up soon. I enjoyed the tour tremendously, but do which the numbers weren’t so crammed in. Our guide was amazing and bought alive the context of the pre-​historic burials, Viking invaders, Victorian explorer neglect and the importance of the Winter Solstice to Meas Howe.
A most enjoyable hour and definite recommendation. Oh also on another note, buy your international post card stamps from the gift shop here as they sell a pretty 5 pack which has all the Neolithic Orkney landmarks.

A fantastic site, don’t miss it! Tours run regularly throughout the day and must be booked in advance — you used to just turn up and take the next available tour but it doens’t work like that any more.
The passageway is narrow, low and relatively long (well it feel long when you’re walking doubled up along it) but you can easily stand up inside the tomb. The tour guides are helpful and interesting — although they seem to be trying to ‘sanitise’ the translations of some of the Viking runic inscriptions (graffiti!). Sunset in midwinter is the best time to visit if you can — as that’s the special time when the setting sun sends its rays right down the passageway to light up the inside back wall of the chamber! Stunning.

Maeshowe looks like little more than a grassy mound from the nearby main road. But it is the finest chambered tomb in northern Europe — bar none. Over 5,000 years old, it predates the oldest of the Pyramids in Egypt.
The tomb itself is accessed via a long, low and narrow tunnel, 14m long and just 1.4m high. This enters the large central chamber, with is 4.5m square and about 4m high, the walls of which taper gently to the roof, with butresses at each corner. Three further chambers open off this main chamber, each with a right-​angled dog-​leg.
The interior architecture of the tomb is stunning. The walls were built of massive blocks of sandstone, beautifully prepared and laid with great care to form an sublime space. The tapering and accuracy of the fit of the stones cannot fail to impress. It also represents a phenomenal feat of engineering, as the individual blocks weigh up to three tonnes. It would be a challenge now, let alone 5000 years ago. The acoustics are also unique — giving an other-​worldly sound, with patches of loud and quiet noise, suggesting this may have formed part of rituals performed within.
Another famous feature is a series of 30 different Viking runes dating from the 12^th century. Left by Vikings who took shelter from a storm here returning from the crusades, it is one of the largest collection in existence, and is accompanied by drawings of dragon, a walrus and a serpent. These are explained in detail at:

This incursion (or incursions) is also reported in the Orkneyinga Saga. It is amazing to think that the 12^th century Vikings are more contemporaneous with us than with the original builders.
There is some speculation that the tomb may have been reused as a burial chamber in the Viking period.
The entrance passage is aligned with the winter solstice, so that the sun shines directly into the chamber on the shortest day. This, together with the sparsity of artefacts found when the tomb was first excavated in 1861, suggest it may have had a ritual use beyond being a burial site. For many years, the passage was blocked, and an entrance had been broken through the roof. The roof, and the mound above, has now been restored.
The site is open daily, but visitor numbers are restricted due to the confined space, so tickets must be reserved in advance, either by telephone or the web-​site, and are valid for a specific timed period. You report to the visitor information centre at Tormiston Mill, where there is an display giving information about the tomb. The narrow passage entrance is not too hard to scramble along, but may not suit those of a claustrophobic nature.