The burial mound was built around 2800 BC by farming communities of central Orkney and contains a stone chamber associated with the Grooved Ware pottery tradition.
A passage 11 metres long and less than a metre high runs into the mound at Maeshowe, so that anyone entering must stoop the whole way before the chamber opens out above them. For a few days on either side of the winter solstice the setting sun runs straight down that passage and strikes the rear wall of the chamber.
The mound is one of the largest chambered cairns in Orkney — about 35 metres across and 7.3 metres high, with a ditch running round the base some 15 to 21 metres out and up to 14 metres wide. Beneath it is a passage and central chamber built from large slabs of local flagstone, some weighing as much as 30 tons. The chamber is almost square, about 4.6 metres a side, standing 3.8 metres high today; that is the height of the surviving original stonework, and it is now closed by a modern corbelled roof, though the original may have risen to 4.6 metres or more.
Inside, the walls are made of large flat slabs, many running almost the full length of each side, with massive angled buttresses rising in each corner towards the vault. At about 0.91 metres the construction changes from flat slabs to overlapping stones, and it is that change that produces the beehive-shaped vault overhead.
Estimates of the labour vary widely — one commonly cited figure is around 39,000 hours, while Colin Renfrew calculated at least 100,000 — but either way the monument was the coordinated work of a substantial community over a long period. Dating is difficult; burials in comparable tombs cluster around 3000 BC, and because Maeshowe is the largest and most sophisticated of its kind archaeologists have taken it to be the last stage of the tradition, built about 2800 BC. It gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, a form found only in Orkney. Stuart Piggott called it “a superlative monument that by its originality of execution is lifted out of its class into a unique position”.
The name is Norse before it is Scots. Medieval sources, including the Orkneyinga saga, call it Orkahaugr: haugr means mound or burial mound, and Orka may be either a personal name or the place-name Orkney, so it reads as Ork’s mound or the mound of Orkney. The modern form developed later — howe is the same Norse haugr, while Maes is less certain and may be a reshaping of the older Norse name. Antiquarian writers generally wrote Maes Howe or Maes-howe. Hugh Marwick suggested a Gaelic origin in mas, a buttock or rounded hillock, describing the shape of the mound, though Celtic place-names are uncommon in the Northern Isles and he treated the idea as uncertain; a derivation from Welsh maes, a field or open space, is also thought doubtful. As with many prehistoric monuments, the tomb is thousands of years older than any name recorded for it.
Maeshowe belongs to a wider ceremonial landscape in central Orkney that includes the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness. It rises as a grassy mound from a flat plain near the south-east end of the Loch of Harray, and the ground around it at the time of building probably looked much as it does now — treeless, under grasses reflecting mixed agriculture with a pastoral bias, with substantial ribwort pollen but cereal pollen too.
Its alignments run beyond the sun. The entrance of Structure 8 at the nearby Barnhouse Settlement faces the mound directly, and the Barnhouse Stone, in a field some 700 metres away, lines up exactly with the entrance. A Neolithic low road connects Maeshowe with Skara Brae, passing close to the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar; low roads link ceremonial sites of this date across Britain. Some archaeologists believe a large stone circle once surrounded the mound.
Taken together — Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness, Skara Brae and the other tombs and standing stones around them — this is a concentration of Neolithic monuments rivalled in Britain only by Stonehenge and Avebury. Maeshowe is a scheduled monument and part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.
The name
Maeshowe appears in the medieval Orkneyinga saga as the Old Norse Orkahaugr — haugr meaning 'mound' and Orka either a personal name or 'Orkney', so usually read as 'Ork's mound' or 'the mound of Orkney'. The modern name developed later from Scots; 'howe' derives from haugr, while the first element 'Maes' is uncertain (Hugh Marwick tentatively suggested Gaelic mas, 'rounded hillock'; a Welsh maes, 'field', has also been proposed, both regarded as doubtful).
History
The chambered cairn was built around 2800 BC by Neolithic farming communities of central Orkney, associated with the Grooved ware pottery tradition; as the largest and most sophisticated Maeshowe-type tomb it may represent the final stage of that architectural tradition. In the twelfth century AD, after the mound had stood for about four thousand years, Norse visitors broke in — apparently forcing entry through the roof — and carved more than thirty runic inscriptions into the chamber walls, the largest single collection of runes known from one location.
The tomb was opened in the modern era in July 1861 by the antiquarian James Farrer, MP, whose workmen broke through the roof and emptied the main chamber, exposing the runic inscriptions; excavation has shown the external wall around the ditch was rebuilt in the 9th century.
People
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James Farrer
Antiquarian and MP for South Durham who carried out the 1861 'modern' opening of the tomb
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Harald Maddadsson and Earl Rognvald
Leaders said in the Orkneyinga saga to have sheltered in the mound during a snowstorm and broken into the chamber seeking treasure
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Stuart Piggott
Archaeologist who called Maeshowe 'a superlative monument... lifted out of its class into a unique position'
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Portrait: Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 Colin Renfrew
Archaeologist who estimated the monument may have required at least 100,000 hours of work
Cultural influences
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The Maeshowe type of chambered cairn — a long, low entrance passage leading to a near-square chamber with side cells — which this tomb names and of which only about seven definite examples are known, all in Orkney.
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A close similarity to the Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland, including a midwinter solar alignment, suggesting a link between the two cultures.
Connections
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Photo: Dr. John F. Burka / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Heart of Neolithic Orkney (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Component monument, inscribed in 1999 alongside Skara Brae, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar
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Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness
Part of the same central-Orkney Neolithic ceremonial landscape
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Barnhouse Settlement and the Barnhouse Stone
Aligned with Maeshowe — Structure 8's entrance faces the mound, and the Barnhouse Stone ~700 m away aligns with the entrance
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Photo: Tjp finn / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Closely similar passage tomb with a comparable midwinter solar alignment
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Other Maeshowe-type tombs (Cuween Hill, Wideford Hill, Quanterness, Quoyness, Vinquoy Hill, Holm of Papa Westray)
The small group of tombs sharing Maeshowe's distinctive plan
Discovery & excavation
The tomb was opened in July 1861 by James Farrer and his workmen, who broke through the entrance-passage roof — finding it filled with debris — then through the top of the mound, emptying the chamber over a few days. They found the famous runic inscriptions, proof that Norsemen had broken in at least six centuries earlier. No human remains were found at Maeshowe, unusually for a chambered tomb. The runes are still studied today using reflectance transformation imaging.
In culture
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Described in Historic Environment Scotland's Statement of Significance as 'a masterpiece of Neolithic engineering... a unique survival from 5000 years ago' and 'an expression of genius'.
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In 1971 Peter Tompkins proposed, comparing Maeshowe to the Great Pyramid, that the structure served as an observatory and calendar with 'retiring rooms' for observers rather than as a tomb.
What to look for
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The grass-covered mound
The grass-covered mound, about 35 m across and 7.3 m high, ringed by a wide ditch.
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The entrance passage
The long, low entrance passage (about 11 m, only ~0.9 m high) that must be stooped through before the chamber opens out.
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The central chamber
The near-square central chamber (~4.6 m a side), with massive angled corner buttresses rising to a beehive-shaped corbelled vault.
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The winter-solstice alignment
The winter-solstice alignment — for a few days around midwinter the setting sun shines down the passage onto the rear wall of the chamber.
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Norse runic inscriptions
The Norse runic inscriptions cut into the chamber walls, including the boast that 'these runes were carved by the man most skilled in runes west of the ocean' and 'Ingigerth is the most beautiful of women'.
What is said
Folklore and tradition, recorded as what is said — not as established fact.
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In the Orkneyinga saga the mound (Orkahaugr) is entered by a Norse party led by Harald Maddadsson and Earl Rognvald, who shelter from a snowstorm and break in seeking treasure; in Scandinavian folklore such mounds were thought to hold treasure guarded by draugar, the restless spirits of the dead. (saga account blends history and legend; broadly corresponds to archaeological evidence for 12th-century Norse entry)
Standing there
- From outside Maeshowe is a large grass-covered mound about 35 metres across rising over 7 metres high on the open Orkney plain, ringed by a broad ditch — a smooth green dome on flat farmland with the wide Mainland sky around it and the other Neolithic monuments in view.
- Entry means stooping or crawling along a low passage only about 0.9 metres high and some 11 metres long before the space suddenly opens into a tall central chamber roughly 4.6 metres square — the bodily experience is one of confinement and darkness giving way to a cool, enclosed stone room.
- Inside, the walls are built of huge flat flagstone slabs — some weighing as much as 30 tons — with massive angled stones standing in each corner, so the chamber is hard, cold, silent and echoing, the air still and earth-cool after the bright exposed mound outside.
- The tomb is aligned so that at the winter solstice the setting sun shines straight up the entrance passage and strikes the rear wall of the chamber — for a few midwinter days a shaft of low golden light reaches into the dark interior, an effect deliberately engineered around 2800 BC and still witnessed today.
- For its Neolithic builders, gathering in the lightless chamber by the glow of the midwinter sun or a small fire would have made this a charged, otherworldly space — entered on hands and knees from the daylight into a stone-walled dark held back only by that single annual beam of sun.
Plan your visit
- Location
- 58.9966°N · 3.1882°W
- Nearest settlement
- Stenness
- Access
- Paid entry — managed visitor site
- Terrain
- Easy going
- Start point
- Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness · Ireland Road · Stenness · KW16 3LB · National Grid reference: HY 30268 11314 · Telephone: 01856 851 266
- Time needed
- About 60 minutes
- Best time
- Buy Orkney Digital Guide Opening times Visits are by guided tour only, which depart from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness village on the hour.
- What survives
- The chambered cairn survives as a grass-covered mound enclosing a carefully built stone passage and chamber; the central chamber is capped by a modern corbelled roof.
- Facilities
- Visits are by guided tour from the visitor centre; check booking and current facilities before travelling.
- Start point
- Maeshowe Visitor Centre car park, Stenness — Maeshowe can only be visited on a timed guided tour. Park at the Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness (Ireland Road, KW16 3LB); a shuttle bus takes visitors from the centre to the cairn. Booking online in advance is strongly recommended. The straight-line distance shown is to the cairn from the visitor centre, not a walking route.
- Sat-nav
- KW16 3LB
Opening & admission
Free entry
- Buy Orkney Digital Guide Opening times Visits are by guided tour only, which depart from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness village on the hour.
Nearby places
Settlement · Prehistoric
Barnhouse Settlement
Orkney Islands
A settlement of the first farming age on the shore of the Loch of Harray, close to the Standing Stones of Stenness.
- Easy path
Sacred place · Prehistoric
Stones of Stenness Circle and Henge
Orkney Islands
An ancient monument five miles north-east of Stromness that may be the oldest circular enclosure in the British Isles.
- Near Stenness
- 2 min walk from car park
- Easy path
Sacred place · Prehistoric
Heart of Neolithic Orkney
Orkney Islands
The Orkney World Heritage group is made up of monuments from the closing Stone Age, roughly 4000–2500 BC, whose remains illuminate the islands’ cha…
- Some walking
Sacred place · Prehistoric
Ness of Brodgar
Orkney Islands
Ness of Brodgar preserves an archaeological site between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness.
- Near Stenness
- Easy path
Questions people ask
- How do I visit Maeshowe?
- Visits are by guided tour only. Tours depart from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness, with visitors travelling to the cairn as part of the scheduled tour.
- Why is the entrance so low?
- The entrance passage is about 11 metres long and only around 0.9 metres high, so visitors must stoop or crawl before reaching the tall central chamber.
- What are the runes inside?
- Norse visitors entered the mound in the 12th century and cut more than thirty runic inscriptions into the chamber walls, the largest collection from a single location.
Sources
- Canmore site record 2094 (accessed 2026-06-13)
- Wikipedia: Maeshowe (accessed 2026-06-13)
- Wikidata Q507076 (accessed 2026-06-13)
Explore more: Tomb or burial places · Prehistoric · Orkney Islands
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