Midhowe Chambered Cairn

Midhowe Chambered Cairn is a large Neolithic chambered cairn located on the south shore of the island of Rousay, Orkney, Scotland. The name "Midhowe" comes from the Iron Age broch known as Midhowe Broch, that lies just west of the tomb. The broch got its name from the fact that it is the middle of three such structures that lie grouped within of each other and Howe from the Old Norse word haugr meaning mound or barrow. Together, the broch and chambered cairn form part of a large complex of ancient structures on the shore of Eynhallow Sound separating Rousay from Mainland, Orkney. The tomb is a particularly well preserved example of the Orkney-Cromarty type of chambered cairn. Tombs of this type are often referred to as "stalled" cairns due to their distinctive internal structure. Stalled cairns have a central passageway flanked by a series of paired transverse stones that separate the side spaces into compartments that reminded early investigators of horse stalls. The earliest versions of this tomb type are found in Caithness, and they typically consist of no more than four stalled compartments. In Orkney, the tombs became more elaborate; Midhowe is an extreme example of the form with twelve chambers flanking a passageway in length. The transverse stones rise to a height of and the walls still rise to a height of . Like most tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone, replaced by a modern hangar-like structure that protects the site. The nature of the original roof is unclear; it may have consisted of flat slabs of flagstone at a height of or more. Alternatively, it may have been vaulted like Maeshowe to a height of as much as . The cairn appears to have been intentionally filled with debris after hundreds of years of usage beginning early in the third millennium BC. The size and complexity of the interior of the cairn must have exerted a powerful influence on those entering it. Castleden describes it this way: Walking into the monument is a little like walking into a miniature church, the straight central aisle flanked on each side by pillar-like slabs and culminating in a shrine-like end compartment at the western end.