📌 Kirkwall, Orkney Mainland
★★
This 2,500-year old souterrain (or earth house) is located in the middle of a farmyard close to the Bay of Firth on Orkney’s Mainland. The entrance for modern-day visitors is by climbing down a short metal ladder directly into the main chamber – take a torch to see beyond this. There are two good reasons why the original, seven metre long access passage isn’t used any longer: it’s uncomfortably tiny… and the farm road goes right over the top of the entrance! The underground chamber was discovered in the 1920s when a threshing machine fell into it from above, also revealing bones from 18 different people inside. Slightly chilling given it was supposed to be a structure used to store supplies…
🌍 Location
📌 Off A965 3 mi west of Kirkwall, Orkney Mainland
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: HY 397126
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 58.996206,-3.050581
🚌 Bus stops on A965
🚗 Park on side of track to farm (don’t block access)
📝 Key info
⌚ Always open
🎫 Free
