Castle Bloody

Castle Bloody (Eng. the Bloody Palace ) is a basement, which is located in a mound near the coast, in the south east of Shapinsay, an island of Orkney in Scotland. Older records of the investigating committee of the Historical Monuments of Scotland ( RCAHMS ) classify the place still as a stone hill of a chamber tomb. Located on the highest point of the surrounding structure was described as Pictish fort. She is probably older than Burroughston Broch, the further north, on the east coast Shapinsays. A detailed analysis classified the structure only in 1981 as a basement.

The earliest mention of the place was in 1880 in a book of names and 1900 on the six-inch map. Before 1928 someone removed some of the massive slabs of the main chamber. ( Report RCAHMS, 1946). The building material provided the outcrops of the cliff in the area of ​​Lingavi Geo. Although the structure was examined grossly, the architecture and function remains mysterious.

The covered with earth and grass cairn, in which the structure is located, has about 13 m in diameter. Its height is variously given in the literature ( 1.2 and 1.8 m). The hills form can be compared with Ham in Caithness and the Knowe of Midgarth. The geometry of the basement comprises a small underground main cell with accessory cells, which branch from the main chamber. The main room with its north-south axis is located slightly east of the center. The roof of 1.5 m × 0.9 m large chamber is covered with large flat stones. The main chamber has a side wall made of dry stone walls which tapers by corbels.

Two narrow corridors leading to the main cell. The southern access is a curved plates covered with a long passage which comes from the southeast. A second, much lower gear, which is now blocked by debris, stretches from the North end of the room a short straight piece to the northeast. The smaller gear is detectable for about a meter and seems to lead to an erosion, which can be another room, which is, however, filled with loose debris.

Other ancient monuments are located northwest of the Menhir Mor Stone ( about 1.3 km) and several Cairns ( about 0.8 km).