:)10 Dr. Hibbert on the Vitrified Cairns of Orkney. 



forests, no fire had been raised of sufficient intensity to leave 

 any marks of vitrification whatever upon the mounds of stone 

 on which the inflammable materials had rested. 



This conclusion I must now very materially qualify. It 

 was in the museum of Mr Traill, of Woodwick, a scientific 

 gentleman, who has formed a very interesting collection of the 

 natural products of Orkney, as well as of its relics of antiquity, 

 that I observed some very large specimens of vitrified stony 

 matter, precisely like that which is obtained from vitrified forts, 

 and with which you are familiar. These, Mr Traill informed 

 me, had been sent to him by Mr Urquhart of Elsness, in 

 Sanday, who had obtained them from the ness or promontory 

 which imparts the name to his estate. 



After these prefatory remarks, I shall proceed to describe 

 the vitrified site of Elsness. You must, however, excuse me 

 from doing more than giving you a very brief notice of it, as 

 well as of the inferences, supported by historical documents, 

 which are to be deduced from the discovery. These details, 

 which would run to an unreasonable length, I have not yet 

 had leisure to draw up in a connected manner. They will, in 

 the course of the ensuing winter, as a continuation of my for- 

 mer memoirs, be laid before the Antiquarian Society of Scot- 

 land. 



Elsness, lying to the south of the island of Sanday, is a pro- 

 montory rather more than a mile long from north to south, 

 and about half a mile broad. It was evidently the stronghold 

 of a Scandinavian chief, one of the ancient sea-kings, being 

 dignified by the presence upon it of the remains of a burgh, 

 or circular fort, as well as of a large sepulchral tumulus, which 

 bears the name of Egmond's How, and of a number of smaller 

 cairns ranged near it in a semicircular form, which, perhaps, 

 were likewise the ancient resting-places of the brave. Another 

 contiguous site, which, by means of a low continuous mound 

 of earth, is made to take the form of a large crescent, indicates 

 by this particular structure the place of zroeaponshaw, or the site 

 where a tribe was accustomed upon any hostile alarm to repair 

 fully armed. .Again, about three quarters of a mile to the north 

 of Elsness, close to the ancient church named Mary Kirk, may 



