Mase Howe is located in the Orkney Islands at the extreme north of Scotland.

It is a burial mound dating back to 2,700BC. The mound is 35 m in diameter and 7 m high. The internal construction is stone slabs and consists of a number of chambers. It is a excellent example of prehistoric burial mounds that can be found throughout Britian and Europe.

During the winter solstice the sun shines down the entrance passageway into the central chamber, the rest of the time you need to make use of the lighting that has been installed.

The tomb was raided and emptied of artifacts before the birth of Christ. Vikings later used it as a shelter from the storms and the viking graffiti can be seen to this day carved on the interior walls in runes. What did they write? The same sorts of things that graffiti artists write today ".... was here", that sort of thing.

It is an intriguing development that we can now all be connected to this relic of our distant past via webcam. The webcam is not live at the moment but click here to view some recent action in this ancient passageway on a distant Scottish island.