Grain Earth House

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; collect the key free of charge from the Judith Glue shop, 25 Broad Street, Kirkwall. No membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking. The earth house is about a mile north-west of Kirkwall at the junction of Scotts Road and Swordfish Road in Hatston Industrial Estate, off the A965, among business premises with no visitor car park, so the status is recorded as none.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin on the earth house. Collect the key first from the Judith Glue shop on Broad Street, opposite St Magnus Cathedral in the centre of Kirkwall. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Grain Earth House is an Iron Age souterrain, a stone-lined underground passage probably built at the end of the first millennium BC, now surrounded by the units of Hatston Industrial Estate on the north-west edge of Kirkwall. Historic Scotland calls it exceptionally well built and well preserved: the original entrance and lower steps lead down to a curving passage about five metres long and an oval chamber whose roof rests on four stone pillars. Found during ploughing in 1827, it belonged to a settlement of stone roundhouses, and like other Northern Isles earth houses it was most likely a cool store for food. It is kept locked. Collect the key free of charge from the Judith Glue shop at 25 Broad Street, opposite St Magnus Cathedral, during shop hours, sign the book and return it within two hours. Reviewers warn of a low, narrow and sometimes wet crawl into a chamber too low to stand in, and suggest switching off the torch for a moment of total darkness.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Grain Earth House09:00 – 17:30the key-holding shop's hours; collect the key from Judith Glue, 25 Broad Street, Kirkwall

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'Grain Earth House is free to visit. It is open during the opening hours for Judith Glue Shop, 25 Broad Street, Kirkwall, as this is where you need to collect the key from. Please return it after use. You can borrow a torch when you visit.' The shop's published 2026 hours for October and November are Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm; December the same; January and February Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm; March Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 5pm; April Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm; May to September Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm (Sundays 10am to 5pm May to August, 11am to 4pm in September). Telephone 01856 874225.

Reviewers sign a book with their name and phone number when borrowing the key, pay nothing and return it within two hours. Historic Scotland: 'Access to the chamber is by crawling through a narrow passage and can be wet.' Steps lead down to a low, narrow passage and a chamber too low to stand in; the torch on site sometimes has flat batteries, so bring your own. No toilets or other facilities.

Photo: The grassy mound and stone entrance of Grain Earth House inside its railings, with an information board and industrial buildings behind. PaulT (Gunther Tschuch), CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirkwall_Grain_Earth_House_01.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.