The Diving Bird of Unstan Chambered Cairn

There are a lot of details that make Unstan Chambered Cairn interesting.

But what I want to show you today is a mystery no bigger than the size of my hand.

Unstan was opened in 1884 by Robert Clouston. Inside, he found a large quantity of human remains, along with animal bones, spread through the chambers. Like other Neolithic cairns in Orkney, this wasn’t a single burial. The tomb was reused, with bones placed, moved, and returned over time.

The site is also important because it gave its name to Unstan Ware — a distinctive type of Neolithic pottery first identified here, later found across Orkney and beyond. The cairn itself is slightly unusual, combining features of different chambered tomb traditions. This is one reason archaeologists have paid it so much attention.

But that’s not the interesting part today.

If you go inside, you’ll notice scratches and carvings in the stone. Names and marks left by visitors from the 19th century onwards. They’re rough, uneven, and clearly done by people with no experience of carving stone.

And then there’s this.

A small carving, often called the diving bird.

It stands apart immediately. The lines are controlled and deliberate. This isn’t casual graffiti. Whoever made it knew how to work stone.

What we don’t know is when it was carved. Some think it may be relatively recent. Others argue it could be much older — possibly up to two thousand years old. What is clear is that the level of craftsmanship isn’t seen in the later marks around it.

Because of that, it’s sometimes compared with carving traditions associated with the Picts.