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Linga Fiolds is a Bronze Age burial mound cemetery located 220 metres north-west of Upper Lyking Cottage in Orkney, Scotland. The monument comprises a group of earthen mounds that rest upon bedrock of Middle Old Red Sandstone, a conglomerate and sandstone base laid down during the Middle Devonian period. This geological foundation of hard stone would have presented challenges to those constructing the mounds, who built upward rather than excavating into the resistant bedrock beneath.
The cemetery represents a significant phase in Orkney's prehistoric settlement history, when communities established formal burial grounds on the islands' modest topography. Such mound cemeteries are characteristic of Bronze Age ritual practice across northern Britain, though Orkney's windswept landscape and limited natural stone shelter made such above-ground monuments particularly visible statements of territorial and ancestral identity.
The site is protected by Historic Environment Scotland under scheduled monument reference SM1348, recognising its archaeological importance. The mounds remain largely unexcavated, preserving evidence of Bronze Age burial practices and the material culture deposited with the dead. Their survival on this exposed Orkney hillside, despite centuries of weathering and agricultural activity, testifies to the substantial construction invested in marking the dead in this northern landscape.
Linga Fiolds, mounds 220m NW of Upper Lyking Cottage is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM1348. View the official record →
Linga Fiolds is a Bronze Age burial mound cemetery located 220 metres north-west of Upper Lyking Cottage in Orkney, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM1348.
Linga Fiolds, mounds 220m NW of Upper Lyking Cottage is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM1348.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Knowe of Onston,or Unstan,chambered cairn (4 km), Cummi Howe, broch (5.3 km), Little Barnhouse, mound, 160m NE of (5.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Linga Fiolds, mounds 220m NW of Upper Lyking Cottage's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Linga Fiolds, mounds 220m NW of Upper Lyking Cottage stands on Middle Old Red Sandstone (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.