Unstan Chambered Cairn
Entrance to Unstan Chambered Cairn
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 Shown within Orkney Islands
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| Location | Mainland, Orkney |
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| Region | Scotland |
| Coordinates | 58°59′11″N 3°14′57″W / 58.9863°N 3.2492°W |
| Type | Neolithic chambered cairn |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic |
| Site notes | |
| Public access | Yes |
Unstan (or Onstan, or Onston) is a Neolithic chambered cairn located about 2 miles (3 km) north-east of Stromness on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The tomb was built on a promontory that extends into the Loch of Stenness near the settlement of Howe. Unstan is notable as an atypical hybrid of the two main types of chambered cairn found on Orkney, and as the location of the first discovery of a type of pottery that now bears the name of the tomb. The site is in the care of Historic Scotland.
The tomb is a particularly well preserved, and somewhat unusual, example of an Orkney–Cromarty chambered cairn. Tombs of this type are often referred to as "stalled" cairns due to their distinctive internal structure. Stalled cairns have a central passageway flanked by a series of paired transverse stones that separate the side spaces into compartments that reminded early investigators of horse stalls. The earliest versions of this tomb type are found in Caithness, they typically consist of no more than four stalled compartments. In Orkney, the tombs became increasingly elaborate; the number of compartments reached a maximum of fourteen at the Knowe of Ramsay on Rousay. Unstan is a more modest example of the form with five chambers flanking a passageway 6.4 metres (21 ft) in length. Like most tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone, replaced by a modern concrete dome that protects the site. The remaining walls rise to a height of almost 2 metres (6.6 ft), and consist primarily of thin stacked slabs of local flagstone that come from the Devonian Old Red Sandstone.
Unstan is an atypical example of the Orkney–Cromarty chambered cairn in several respects. First, the barrow, or burial mound, that covered the tomb is circular, 13 metres (43 ft) in diameter, rather than the usual oblong or rectangular form. Second, the barrow is round because the tomb contains a side chamber, a feature more common in the Maeshowe-type tombs. Third, the main chamber does not open at the end of the passageway, like typical stalled tombs, but along one long side. Again, this is more characteristic of the Maeshowe tombs. The barrow is made of two or three concentric rows of stonework.
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