Maeshowe facts for kids
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Orkhaugr (Old Norse)
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Maeshowe
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 Location in Orkney Islands
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| Alternative name | Maes Howe |
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| Location | Stenness, Mainland, Orkney |
| Region | Scotland |
| Coordinates | 58°59′48″N 3°11′17″W / 58.9965806°N 3.1881749°W |
| Type | Chambered cairn |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic |
| Site notes | |
| Ownership | Historic Scotland |
| Public access | Yes |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, ii, iii, iv |
| Designated | 1999 (23rd session) |
| Part of | Heart of Neolithic Orkney |
| Reference no. | 514 |
| Region | Europe and North America |
| Identifiers | |
| Historic Environment Scotland | SM90209 |
Maeshowe (also known as Maes Howe) is a very old stone building on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was built around 2800 BC, which is about 4,800 years ago! This makes it a Neolithic site.
Maeshowe is a special type of ancient tomb called a chambered cairn or passage grave. It is so unique that other similar tombs in Orkney are named after it. Experts like archaeologist Stuart Piggott have called it an amazing example of ancient building skills.
Today, Maeshowe is a scheduled monument. It is also part of the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" group of sites. This group includes places like Skara Brae. In 1999, these sites became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This means they are very important to the world's history.
Contents
Building Maeshowe: An Ancient Wonder
Maeshowe is one of the biggest tombs in Orkney. The grassy mound covering the tomb is about 35 meters wide. It rises to a height of about 7 meters. Around the mound, there is a ditch up to 14 meters wide.
The mound hides a complex system of passages and rooms. These are built from carefully shaped slabs of flagstone. Some of these stones weigh as much as 30 tons! The tomb is built in a special way. The back wall of its main room lights up during the winter solstice. This is when the sun is lowest in the sky. A similar thing happens at Newgrange in Ireland.
The entrance passage is about 11 meters long. It leads to the main room, which is almost square. This room measures about 4.5 meters on each side. The room's walls are made of flat stone slabs. Many of these slabs run almost the entire length of the walls.
The entrance passage is only about 1 meter high. This means visitors have to bend or crawl to get into the main room. The original roof of the main room might have been over 4.5 meters high.
Building Maeshowe took a huge amount of effort. Some experts think it took at least 100,000 hours of work! This shows how important it was to the people who built it. These people used a special type of pottery called "grooved ware." This pottery was common in Britain around 3000 BC.
Maeshowe's Location and Connections
Maeshowe looks like a grassy hill rising from a flat plain. It is near the southeast end of the Loch of Harray. The land around Maeshowe probably looked similar when it was built. It was mostly treeless, with lots of grass.
Maeshowe is connected to other ancient sites nearby. For example, the entrance of "Structure 8" at the Barnhouse Settlement faces Maeshowe. Also, the "Barnhouse Stone" is perfectly lined up with Maeshowe's entrance. This special entrance lets the setting sun shine into the main room for a few days around the winter solstice. This light even reaches a small room at the back.
A very old "low road" connects Maeshowe to other important sites. These include the well-preserved village of Skara Brae. It also passes near the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. These "low roads" linked ancient ceremonial sites all over Britain. Some archaeologists believe Maeshowe was once surrounded by a large stone circle.
The area around Maeshowe has many important Neolithic sites. This collection of sites is one of the biggest in Britain. Only the areas around Stonehenge and Avebury have similar numbers of ancient monuments.
Visiting Maeshowe
The Maeshowe Heart of Neolithic Orkney Visitor Centre opened in April 2017. It is located in Stenness Village. This center replaced an older one that was next to the tomb. The new center is better for visitors. It has a bigger parking lot and is easier to access.
Tours to Maeshowe start from this visitor center. A shuttle bus takes groups of 16 people to the tomb. The center also has an exhibition, a gift shop, and public toilets.
Maeshowe's Unique Style
Maeshowe is so special that it gives its name to a type of ancient tomb. These "Maeshowe-type" tombs are only found in Orkney. Maeshowe is also very similar to the famous Newgrange tomb in Ireland. This suggests that the people who built them might have been connected.
Maeshowe-type tombs have a long, low entrance passage. This passage leads to a square or rectangular main room. From this main room, you can reach several smaller side rooms. There are only seven known Maeshowe-type tombs. Besides Maeshowe, these include Cuween Hill, Wideford Hill, and Quanterness on Mainland Orkney. Other examples are Quoyness on Sanday, Vinquoy Hill on Eday, and an unnamed tomb on the Holm of Papa Westray.
Interestingly, some experts believe Maeshowe might have been more than just a tomb. Peter Tompkins, a researcher, suggested in 1971 that it could have been an observatory. He thought it was used to watch the stars and track the calendar. He compared its building quality to the Great Pyramid in Egypt. He believed its passages were like telescopes. They were aimed at certain stones to mark events like the summer solstice. This idea suggests that Maeshowe was a very advanced ancient calendar and observatory.
Discovering Maeshowe
Maeshowe was officially opened in July 1861 by James Farrer. He was a politician and an expert in old things. Farrer and his workers dug through the roof of the entrance passage. They found it filled with dirt. Then they dug into the top of the mound. Over a few days, they emptied the main room.
Inside, they found something amazing: famous runic inscriptions carved on the walls! These carvings were proof that Vikings had broken into the tomb centuries earlier.
The Orkneyinga saga, an old Norse story, says that famous Vikings like Earl Harald Maddadarson looted Maeshowe around the 12th century. The more than thirty runic carvings on the walls are the largest collection of such carvings in the world. Modern technology helps us study these carvings even better today.
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Later digs have shown that the outer wall around the ditch was rebuilt in the 9th century. Some archaeologists think this means the Vikings might have used the tomb again. They might have even left the "treasure" that later looters found.
World Heritage Status
The "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" became a World Heritage site in December 1999. This important group of sites includes Maeshowe, Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness, and the Ring of Brodgar.
Historic Environment Scotland manages these sites. They describe Maeshowe as a "masterpiece of Neolithic engineering." They say it is an "exceptionally early architectural accomplishment." It is a unique building from 5,000 years ago. It shows the amazing skills of the people who built it.
See also
- Newgrange — another ancient tomb lit by the winter solstice sun
- Ring of Brodgar
- Skara Brae
- Standing Stones of Stenness
- Heart of Neolithic Orkney
- Prehistoric Orkney
