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Founded: 100 BC - 100 ADCategory: Cemeteries, mausoleums and burial places in United Kingdom
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Mine Howe is a prehistoric subterranean man-made chamber dug 20 feet deep inside a large mound. The origin of the howe (from Old Norse word haugr meaning barrow) is not perfectly understood. Experts believe that it was built roughly 2000 years ago during the Iron Age. There is some similarity to the well inside the Iron Age Broch of Gurness.
Its walls are lined with stones fitted to form an arch over the cavity and 29 steps lead to a rock floor. The entrance is at the top of the small hill and there are indications of other Iron Age and earlier activity around the site. A flight of stone steps descend to a half-landing where they turn back on themselves and a further steps descend to a chamber. This chamber is only about 1.3 metres in diameter but is over four metres high with a corbelled roof. The bottom step into this chamber is 0.9 metres high and gives it a cistern-like appearance. At the half-landing two subsidiary chambers/passages open out, one above the other. Most of the structure is lined with beautifully built dry-stone walling.
Mine Howe was first explored in 1946 and misidentified as an Iron Age broch. After the 1940s' excavations were finished, Mine Howe was covered over and left untouched and nearly forgotten for almost 50 years. Douglas Paterson, a farmer who owned the land at the time, rediscovered the site in 1999. He removed material that had filled in during the intervening years and built a small wooden entrance over the opening. He built stairs leading down into the chamber and allowed visitors inside.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.
