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Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems is a Post-Medieval archaeological complex located on the island of Sanday in Orkney, Scotland. The site comprises a landscape of cairns, field enclosures and associated field systems that reflect the agricultural organisation and settlement patterns of the post-medieval period in the Northern Isles. These features represent the systematic cultivation and division of land typical of early modern farming communities, with the cairns likely serving functions related to land clearance or boundary marking within the broader settlement landscape. The complex illustrates the development of organised agricultural land use during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries on Orkney's islands.
Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems, Sanday is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5080. View the official record →
Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems is a Post-Medieval archaeological complex located on the island of Sanday in Orkney, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5080.
Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems, Sanday dates from the post-medieval period, and is classified as a cairns, enclosures and field systems, sanday. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems, Sanday 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 SM5080.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Mount Misery,chambered cairn,Start Point (3.9 km), Burrian, broch and settlement S end of Stromness, North Ronaldsay (5 km), Strom Ness, settlement 400m S of Howar, North Ronaldsay (5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems, Sanday'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.
Tofts Ness, cairns, enclosures and field systems, Sanday stands on Middle Old Red Sandstone (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.