Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking and says only that the cairn lies between Kirkwall and Finstown, signposted from the Old Finstown Road. A small roadside parking place on the hill road is where reviewers leave the car, with room for two to four cars; no official charge or free statement exists, so the status is recorded as unknown.

Driving pin: the roadside parking place, 744 m south-south-east of Historic Scotland's own pin on the cairn, where an undulating, well-marked track leads across the hillside. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn was built some 5,000 years ago on a terrace cut into the steep slope of Wideford Hill, a conspicuous spot looking across the Wide Firth to the islands beyond and to the tomb on Cuween Hill. It belongs to the same family as Maeshowe: a high central chamber with walls almost three metres tall and three side cells, part of the original roof still in place on great stone lintels. Outside, three concentric stepped walls ring the mound. The tomb was deliberately filled in during prehistory and robbed before antiquarians reached it in the 1800s, but inside are rare scratched Neolithic markings like those at Skara Brae. Visitors no longer use the long, low original passage; instead they slide open a hatch in a modern roof and climb down a steel ladder. Reviewers recommend strong footwear for the 15-minute walk along a waymarked track from the small roadside parking place, longer on the way back uphill, and a torch for the chamber.

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Wideford Hill Chambered CairnOpen all year; an unstaffed open site, no hours published

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn is free to visit and open year-round.' No hours, closures or notices on 20 October 2026.

Historic Scotland: 'The walk to the site is over rough ground, is steep in places and can be muddy. Access into the cairn is via a trapdoor and required the use of a ladder. Strong footwear is recommended.' Reviewers take about 15 minutes out and up to 30 minutes back uphill; you slide open a stiff hatch and climb down a steel ladder into the dark chamber. Bring a torch, though one is usually left in a box on site. No toilets or other facilities.

Photo: The three stepped drystone walls of Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn on its hillside terrace, with the low original entrance passage at the front. Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wideford_Cairn_-_geograph.org.uk_-_6893810.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.