How do I visit the Knowe of Yarso?
Follow the signed hillside path from the road in Frotoft to this Neolithic chambered cairn. The walk is about 1.3 km return and steep in places, with views over Eynhallow Sound. Check the visitor information below for access to the cairn itself.
The burials
Historic Environment Scotland dates Yarso broadly to 3500–2500 BC, with evidence of later use. The 1934 excavation found at least 29 people and bones from at least 36 red deer. [2]
The skulls’ arrangement is recorded, but the beliefs behind it are harder to establish. [1] [2]
The chamber
Upright slabs divide the chamber into four compartments. The ancient roof is gone, but much of the original wall height and the entrance passage survive. [2] [4]
Lairo and Ramsay lie on the same hillside. Their chambers show other ways these burial places were built and altered. [1]
The hillside setting
The walk to the cairn is very steep in places and can be muddy. [3]
You’ll find Yarso off the B9064, approximately three miles from Rousay pier. [3]
Find out more
- The Knowe of Lairo: comparisons with YarsoNess of Brodgar Project
Yarso’s landscape context and the arrangement of remains.
- Knowe of Yarso: history and storiesHistoric Environment Scotland
Dating, burial evidence and the surviving chamber.
- Knowe of Yarso: plan your visitHistoric Environment Scotland
Opening information and the steep, potentially muddy approach.
- Knowe of Yarso: scheduled monument recordHistoric Environment Scotland
Recorded chamber layout and monument dimensions.
Researched by Stay Rousay. Sources checked .