Tomb of the Eagles

The Tomb of the Eagles, or Isbister Chambered Cairn, is a Neolithic chambered tomb located on a cliff edge at Isbister on South Ronaldsay in Orkney, Scotland. The site was discovered by Ronald Simison, a farmer, when digging flagstones in 1958; he conducted a limited excavation and removed some bones and skulls at that time but filled in the site with dirt. A more extensive excavation was started in 1976, and "an enormous amount of material was removed", according to a report published in 2002. Alerted by Simison, archaeologist John Hedges mounted a full study, prepared a technical report and wrote a popular book that cemented the tomb's name. The Archaeological Journal review of the Hedges book (Tomb of the eagles a window on Stone Age tribal Britain) provided a less than stellar rating: "reasonably well done", "but how very much better it might have been".