"Orkney's only known two-storey tomb, where Neolithic builders stacked the worlds of the dead one above the other"
Taversoe Tuick Chambered Cairn
Rousay, Orkney Islands, United Kingdom
Near the pier at Trumland, on a hillside above Rousay's southern coast, Taversoe Tuick conceals an architectural anomaly. This Neolithic chambered cairn contains not one burial chamber but two, stacked vertically with separate entrances. The upper chamber is entered from the north, the lower from the south, and each was used independently for burial. Only one other cairn in Orkney, Huntersquoy on the island of Eday, shares this two-storey design. The reason for this arrangement remains one of the genuine puzzles of Orcadian prehistory.
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Quick Facts
Location
Rousay, Orkney Islands, United Kingdom
Tradition
Site Type
Coordinates
59.1380, -3.0500
Last Updated
Feb 6, 2026
Taversoe Tuick is unique among Orkney's approximately eighty known chambered cairns for its two-storey design. The upper chamber follows a Maeshowe-type plan while the lower follows a stalled design, combining two distinct burial traditions within a single monument.
Origin Story
No origin narrative survives. The cairn was built approximately 3000 BCE by Neolithic farming communities on Rousay. The decision to create a two-storey tomb must have been driven by beliefs or social structures that we cannot reconstruct from the archaeological evidence alone.
Key Figures
Lieutenant-General Traill Burroughs
Spiritual Lineage
No continuous tradition connects the present to the Neolithic builders. The site is managed as a heritage monument by Historic Environment Scotland.
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