Sunday, July 03, 2011
HAPPY VALLEY TO SCALE June 28th 2011
Finished my work at the Blide Trust with time to spare for the camera club trip, led by someone who turned out to be called Claire. And fortunately there was still space on the eight-seater Caravelle.
We were going to visit Happy Valley in Stenness parish, which I had always intended to visit - like many ferryloupers I need the green, and on occasion graminiferae (grasses) just won't do ;-) . Actually as an archaeophile I would love to have gone to the end of the Bigswell road itself. On midsummer eve a fire was lit on the ridge of Bigswell Hill, possibly the mound shown west of Mid Bigswell. And in this area is a holy well - children bathed here as part of ceremonies that continued at the Stone of Odin, and kneeling lovers drank the waters prior to taking the vow of Odin at said stone. This was also a healing well. At Beltane patients circled the sacred well deosil (clockwise) before taking a drink from the waters. Those who were epileptic or unsound of mind were plunged into it before being left overnight tied to a post beside the well (I am reminded of the stake left to mark the position of the Kethesgeo stone in Stenness' Clouston district). Presuming that the traditions do indeed relate to one particular well there are differing opinions as to which.it is. Moderns prefer a well at HY3345810462, fifty yards from the Mid Bigswell on a slope over the road. Antiquarians preferred one (HY3362110813) in the Moss of Bigswald below Nether Bigswell with alignments to the Standing Stones on the
Beltane and Midwinter lines, though the wellspring shown SE of Lower/Nether Bigswell, with 'drain', is an even better fit to the description. Here an underground passage of several yards length streamed water to a high-capacity spring with a well (once several yards across) having one or two steps into it.
It also holds interest for the historian as the last battle on Orkney soil took place mostly on the Moss of Bigswald (i.e. Bigswell) in Symmerdale 'springs valley'. A 1599 Scottish invasion [sorry, "expedition"] was decisively repelled at the Battle of Summerdale - possibly after a failed pincer movement as though the main body of Scots landed at Houton others are said to have come via Wasdale in Firth. The battle started at the Hole o' Pow [pow 'pool'] and the Earl of Caithness and most of the Scots were killed here in the Moss of Bigswald. The two Scottish leaders were buried seperately, Lord Sinclair near the moss with a stone marker [? HY34831058] and the earl on the other side of the Burn of Skaill from the traditional Oback site for the Orphir palace and church of the earls, especially earls Harold and Paul (certainly wherever this was Sweyn Asleifarson escaped from the palace up the Dale of Oback to make for Damsay) . The earl's slab memorial was later broken up for domestic use, sometime before 1898, but back in place by 1927. A group of Bronze Age mounds on the west side of the '50-50' road before reaching the Oback-South Fea crossroads are the "heaps of earth" tradition places over the Scottish slain, just by my choice for his lordship's marker. Some Caithness refugees are said to have retreated and sought asylum at the kirk on the Loch of Wasdale after throwing their arms into the Loch of Lummagen by Kebro (the lochan disappeared overnight last century with no finds reported despite many stones having been been removed previously). Aft gang aglae, hey.
The minibus side-door is a bit of a three bears when you are on the inside as when you try to shut it mostly it either does not catch or else bounces back. Fortunately the front seat passenger did the deed from ouside, a grizzled pyramid of a man even taller than Claire. Alongside me sat a mature student nurse on secondment to Orkney. In the back a quiet man sat quietly. Turned out our guide had never been to Happy Valley before and had little idea how to get there - coming from Kirkwall, after you pass the road to the rings and Knowes of Broidgar on your right and then on your left is a branch road with a 'no through road' symbol, which is where you need to go. Then past the Stoursdale farmroad turning [if I remember correctly mysen ;-) ] is another near the southern end of the Happy Valley plantation. There is a kind of rough car parking space, in a tight squeeze you might fit in as many cars as the minibus sat people. This keeps traffic small and light, preserving the tranquility and saving the roads from unbudgeted 'wear and tear'.
A babbling brook runs through it, and we could have done with more talk less hurry. This is part of the Burn of Russadale that runs below the west flank of Brown Hill from Mid Hill and eventually comes past Dams and nigh the main road - there is a Millhouse east of the school. It were nice to see two lads with strimmers doing the cottage lawn. Claire pointed out several rusty pieces of ironmongery sitting against the end wall but nobody bit - wrong shade of rust for me ! The old boy who created the place made plenty of nooks and crannies with many walls of varied stone and aspect, you wonder what might have been before him if anything. By the ford the rectangular structure that looks to be the remains of a mill is the electricity generator, the deteriorating plywood water-wheel perhap a recycled SWA cable drum. Further down the burn has a pair of sweeping curves, a double cutting walled along one bank like that along the millstream in Binscarth plantation - upstream there is another cutting slightly east of a line from (Upper) Bigswell to Dow(a)scarth/Dowsgarth. Signs of restoration are evident in the multifarious kinds of stone used. One rectangular red block near the base catches my eye, having two semi-circular cuts along the bottom edge like half a pair of stocks upside-down. Strange. It is at this point that Claire has to go back for the quiet man, who has obviously made the most of his time here for photography. After a while he is found and we wend our way froward once more. Eventually the path comes to the western end of the plantation and you either go up to the Bigswell road or return whence you came - I don't think we did the full trail ourselves. Nobody slowed to look at the orchids. I know they are over-common this year, still...
Despite the hiatus the trip is well up on time. So as the nurse is only here until Friday it is decided to take her up into Sandwick for a "brilliant" view of Skaill bay. Unfortunately it is a while since the driver had been this way and we missed a nearer road to Skaill and ended up going by one further along the way to Birsay. We stopped at the parish church[? Mobisyard] and got out.
East of the road near the Burn of Rin (Ringan=Ninian) is the recently excavated Viking longhouse mound next to Castle of Snusgar - except that the excavators found that the latter went out of use in mediaeval times and there is a 19thC reference to seeing the building near the coast from a coach. My bet for the site of that building is the Lenahowe/Linnahowe mound with a top to bottom rectangular cut next the high southern end. Today the mound is camouflaged by innumerable clumps of herbage. In front of the church a small circular road runs round a high enclosure [? Mobhisland/Moarisland], close to whose south end Viking graves were found - if it were not for the fact that the Skaill Hoard is reported as found on the Castle of Snusgar by the Burn of Rin then I would have placed its findspot about here.
A 'drain' runs beside the west side of the kirkyard, and after the kirkyard corner there is above the west bank a long wall of bonnie white stone stones and blocks. From here I can see the Knowe of Verron on the horizon. This is a broch that (?later) found use for iron-making. If not here then abouthands going back to a streamlet is the traditional site for St Lawrence stook [stouk 'prebend'] and monastery, with large stones covering an acre almost of which some were used in building Lenahowe farmhouse. There are the most glorious waves bedazzled with sun on both sides of the Bay of Skaill. Some climb up the Hole o' Row only to fall back upon themselves. I head over to the kirk to try once more to find the well. Still no luck. Making my way oot the kirkyard I see by the gate a heart-shaped box. No, no. Block carved into a large heart. Surprised this hasn't gone the way of the broch's furnace base, half-inched in the middle of the excavations !!
Owing to the time lost being lost Claire didn't take us via Twatt kirk to give the nurse that c**p photo-op. Back in Kirkwall, expecting a final 'word', we wait on our guide. No to hanging on she says. I think of folIowing the others inside but I feel tremendously hot and sticky. Would love to socialise except I feel as if I would slip clean out of my claes into a pile on the floor.
Finished my work at the Blide Trust with time to spare for the camera club trip, led by someone who turned out to be called Claire. And fortunately there was still space on the eight-seater Caravelle.
We were going to visit Happy Valley in Stenness parish, which I had always intended to visit - like many ferryloupers I need the green, and on occasion graminiferae (grasses) just won't do ;-) . Actually as an archaeophile I would love to have gone to the end of the Bigswell road itself. On midsummer eve a fire was lit on the ridge of Bigswell Hill, possibly the mound shown west of Mid Bigswell. And in this area is a holy well - children bathed here as part of ceremonies that continued at the Stone of Odin, and kneeling lovers drank the waters prior to taking the vow of Odin at said stone. This was also a healing well. At Beltane patients circled the sacred well deosil (clockwise) before taking a drink from the waters. Those who were epileptic or unsound of mind were plunged into it before being left overnight tied to a post beside the well (I am reminded of the stake left to mark the position of the Kethesgeo stone in Stenness' Clouston district). Presuming that the traditions do indeed relate to one particular well there are differing opinions as to which.it is. Moderns prefer a well at HY3345810462, fifty yards from the Mid Bigswell on a slope over the road. Antiquarians preferred one (HY3362110813) in the Moss of Bigswald below Nether Bigswell with alignments to the Standing Stones on the
Beltane and Midwinter lines, though the wellspring shown SE of Lower/Nether Bigswell, with 'drain', is an even better fit to the description. Here an underground passage of several yards length streamed water to a high-capacity spring with a well (once several yards across) having one or two steps into it.
It also holds interest for the historian as the last battle on Orkney soil took place mostly on the Moss of Bigswald (i.e. Bigswell) in Symmerdale 'springs valley'. A 1599 Scottish invasion [sorry, "expedition"] was decisively repelled at the Battle of Summerdale - possibly after a failed pincer movement as though the main body of Scots landed at Houton others are said to have come via Wasdale in Firth. The battle started at the Hole o' Pow [pow 'pool'] and the Earl of Caithness and most of the Scots were killed here in the Moss of Bigswald. The two Scottish leaders were buried seperately, Lord Sinclair near the moss with a stone marker [? HY34831058] and the earl on the other side of the Burn of Skaill from the traditional Oback site for the Orphir palace and church of the earls, especially earls Harold and Paul (certainly wherever this was Sweyn Asleifarson escaped from the palace up the Dale of Oback to make for Damsay) . The earl's slab memorial was later broken up for domestic use, sometime before 1898, but back in place by 1927. A group of Bronze Age mounds on the west side of the '50-50' road before reaching the Oback-South Fea crossroads are the "heaps of earth" tradition places over the Scottish slain, just by my choice for his lordship's marker. Some Caithness refugees are said to have retreated and sought asylum at the kirk on the Loch of Wasdale after throwing their arms into the Loch of Lummagen by Kebro (the lochan disappeared overnight last century with no finds reported despite many stones having been been removed previously). Aft gang aglae, hey.
The minibus side-door is a bit of a three bears when you are on the inside as when you try to shut it mostly it either does not catch or else bounces back. Fortunately the front seat passenger did the deed from ouside, a grizzled pyramid of a man even taller than Claire. Alongside me sat a mature student nurse on secondment to Orkney. In the back a quiet man sat quietly. Turned out our guide had never been to Happy Valley before and had little idea how to get there - coming from Kirkwall, after you pass the road to the rings and Knowes of Broidgar on your right and then on your left is a branch road with a 'no through road' symbol, which is where you need to go. Then past the Stoursdale farmroad turning [if I remember correctly mysen ;-) ] is another near the southern end of the Happy Valley plantation. There is a kind of rough car parking space, in a tight squeeze you might fit in as many cars as the minibus sat people. This keeps traffic small and light, preserving the tranquility and saving the roads from unbudgeted 'wear and tear'.
A babbling brook runs through it, and we could have done with more talk less hurry. This is part of the Burn of Russadale that runs below the west flank of Brown Hill from Mid Hill and eventually comes past Dams and nigh the main road - there is a Millhouse east of the school. It were nice to see two lads with strimmers doing the cottage lawn. Claire pointed out several rusty pieces of ironmongery sitting against the end wall but nobody bit - wrong shade of rust for me ! The old boy who created the place made plenty of nooks and crannies with many walls of varied stone and aspect, you wonder what might have been before him if anything. By the ford the rectangular structure that looks to be the remains of a mill is the electricity generator, the deteriorating plywood water-wheel perhap a recycled SWA cable drum. Further down the burn has a pair of sweeping curves, a double cutting walled along one bank like that along the millstream in Binscarth plantation - upstream there is another cutting slightly east of a line from (Upper) Bigswell to Dow(a)scarth/Dowsgarth. Signs of restoration are evident in the multifarious kinds of stone used. One rectangular red block near the base catches my eye, having two semi-circular cuts along the bottom edge like half a pair of stocks upside-down. Strange. It is at this point that Claire has to go back for the quiet man, who has obviously made the most of his time here for photography. After a while he is found and we wend our way froward once more. Eventually the path comes to the western end of the plantation and you either go up to the Bigswell road or return whence you came - I don't think we did the full trail ourselves. Nobody slowed to look at the orchids. I know they are over-common this year, still...
Despite the hiatus the trip is well up on time. So as the nurse is only here until Friday it is decided to take her up into Sandwick for a "brilliant" view of Skaill bay. Unfortunately it is a while since the driver had been this way and we missed a nearer road to Skaill and ended up going by one further along the way to Birsay. We stopped at the parish church[? Mobisyard] and got out.
East of the road near the Burn of Rin (Ringan=Ninian) is the recently excavated Viking longhouse mound next to Castle of Snusgar - except that the excavators found that the latter went out of use in mediaeval times and there is a 19thC reference to seeing the building near the coast from a coach. My bet for the site of that building is the Lenahowe/Linnahowe mound with a top to bottom rectangular cut next the high southern end. Today the mound is camouflaged by innumerable clumps of herbage. In front of the church a small circular road runs round a high enclosure [? Mobhisland/Moarisland], close to whose south end Viking graves were found - if it were not for the fact that the Skaill Hoard is reported as found on the Castle of Snusgar by the Burn of Rin then I would have placed its findspot about here.
A 'drain' runs beside the west side of the kirkyard, and after the kirkyard corner there is above the west bank a long wall of bonnie white stone stones and blocks. From here I can see the Knowe of Verron on the horizon. This is a broch that (?later) found use for iron-making. If not here then abouthands going back to a streamlet is the traditional site for St Lawrence stook [stouk 'prebend'] and monastery, with large stones covering an acre almost of which some were used in building Lenahowe farmhouse. There are the most glorious waves bedazzled with sun on both sides of the Bay of Skaill. Some climb up the Hole o' Row only to fall back upon themselves. I head over to the kirk to try once more to find the well. Still no luck. Making my way oot the kirkyard I see by the gate a heart-shaped box. No, no. Block carved into a large heart. Surprised this hasn't gone the way of the broch's furnace base, half-inched in the middle of the excavations !!
Owing to the time lost being lost Claire didn't take us via Twatt kirk to give the nurse that c**p photo-op. Back in Kirkwall, expecting a final 'word', we wait on our guide. No to hanging on she says. I think of folIowing the others inside but I feel tremendously hot and sticky. Would love to socialise except I feel as if I would slip clean out of my claes into a pile on the floor.
Labels: Battle of Summerdale, Bigswell, Castle of Snusgar, Earl of Caithness, Happy Valley, Lord Sinclair, St Lawrence Stook, Stone of Odin
