Standing on the mid-level landing lowing down the lower steps into the bottom chamber.

A mystery reopened

In 1999, there was one archaeological site that turned all eyes to Orkney - Minehowe, a mysterious, underground structure, buried deep within a Tankerness mound.

Within days of the howe being reopened by landowner, Douglas Paterson, the tale of the two-storey construction had made it to the national, and international, press - albeit with some fairly sensational additions.

One such account hailed the chamber as a "druid's temple", while others went as far as to manufacture "an aura of evil" that, they claimed, had caused the site's excavators "to flee in such terrified haste that they were forced to leave their tools behind".

But there was one crucial point that practically all the reports got wrong.

Minehowe was not a new discovery.

The chamber was originally opened in 1946, and was undoubtedly known about for some time before that. But this, and the fact that many folk in Tankerness were well aware of its existence, did nothing to dim the media attention the site attracted.

What is Minehowe?

Plan view of Minehowe. Click on the graphic for an enlargement

Minehowe is a subterranean chamber dug into a large, earthen mound.

Access to the chamber is by a steep, ladder-like, staircase of narrow stone steps. The first flight of steps takes the visitor down to a narrow landing, from which two long, low chambers branch out at almost right angles.

From here, like a spiral staircase, a second steep flight of steps leads down into the darkness until it reaches a sudden drop of about five feet into the lower chamber at the bottom of the structure.

Approximately 20 feet from the top of the howe, this small chamber was thought to be a well by the 1946 excavators, who recorded that it had contained bones and ashes.

But when it comes to the exact purpose of the structure, modern archaeologists remain puzzled. Although the experts who studied the chamber in 1946 emphatically labelled it a broch, we can now rule out that theory.

Back in 1999, County archeologist Julie Gibson felt that, given the construction style, Minehowe dated from the Iron Age. Its design, however, was unlike anything ever encountered before.

"The structure looks very Iron Age and a lot of the construction techniques used in this building are very reminiscent of a broch but from geophysics results we're fairly sure it's not a broch." she said.

A ritual monument?

A cross-section of Minehowe showing the layout of the chambers. Click the image for an enlargement.

When it came to the role of Minehowe, it was generally agreed that it had a ritual or religious purpose - perhaps a symbolic entry to the underworld or a place to commune with the spirits of the earth.

Within the lower of the two "first floor" chambers was a broken hammer stone.

Alongside was the skull of a small dog - a find that echoes the discovery of 24 dog skulls at the Cuween chambered cairn outside Finstown.

Was this skull left here for a reason? Perhaps guarding, or protecting, the entrance. The discovery added weight to idea that the structure had a ritual purpose.

The result of the work carried out by geophysics expert, John Gater, in 1999, also strengthened the "ritual activity" idea.

His survey not only revealed that the howe might contain a second chamber but that it was also surrounded by a huge enclosing ditch.

At the time, the presence of the ditch had the archaeologists wondering whether the enclosed area had been considered in some way special - the ditch perhaps marking a boundary between the sacred and common ground.

The similarities of the geophysics readings to those from the ditch surrounding the Standing Stones o' Stenness also had the experts wondering whether the area might have been considered sacred from the Neolithic.

"The Orkney Mystery of the 29 Steps"

Aside from a second, intact, hammer stone, and the tools abandoned by the excavators, nothing else was left on site after the 1946 excavation work.

Back then, The Orcadian newspaper of August 29, 1946, christened the discovery "the mystery of the 29 steps" and told how the jubilant diggers brought back to the surface "stone axes, knives, hammers and a piece of clay urn."

As well as the "hundreds of bones and other relics were strewn about the floor of this chamber", the report goes on to explain that also among the items found were "curious polished stones (fairly common in Orkney excavation), two teeth and some bones".

Another hole revealed quantities of cockle shells, a find which convinced the excavators that they had to be working on an ancient dwelling.

Minehowe - The original excavation diary