Orcadian landscapes

Took the track down to the start of Binscarth. From outside the wood shining fair with only a few shadowed limbs to make shapes within the mass effect. Though it stayed daybright inside I simply followed the farmtrack winding at the upper edge of the plantation, the uneven track bordered by a ribbon of low grass and the downhill side contained by a border of thin withies. The Loch of Wasdale being the lowest I have ever seen it invited me down to the islet again. The causeway looks simply a compact line of stepping stones. Indeed the larger stone blocks are most noticeable on the shore at the landward side, even given that we can't see down to the loch bottom even here, the opposite of what you'd expect. Or perhaps the precarious nature of the way over misleads me, all those wobbles. At one point the jump takes you onto the edge of an upturned slab rather than a horizontal surface. Despite my damaged ligaments I made it over safely apart from dipping my startled foot accidentally into the loch. Of course on the way back I twisted my foot on some nothing whilst still safely on land ! My self-appointed task this time was to go to the back and take photos of this side. Standing as far out as I could and camera at its widest angle had to deal with the effect of scratches on my lens flaring. A wall section at the back of the mound is the best evidence for this having been an Iron Age structure, other places this end it is difficult to plump for either wall collapse or re-use as being the cause for features. There appears to be a perimeter going around the northern side but it seems a little straight on the ground. Seagulls apear to be nesting on the occasional islet at the loch's northern end, which archaeologists have now plumped for being purely natural (so where is the burial place that should go with the southern islet's kirk ?). On reaching the Harray Road I continued up to the Stoneyhill Road and turned onto Staney Hill. At the next junction I turned left and then left again, taking me up the other side of the field with the standing stone. A pair of skylarks kept landing in a field by me, and thought I did manage a couple of shots the out-of-focus barbed wire messed up the photo opp'. Still at least I have them on the ground to my own satisfaction. In the field to my right Henge now has the NMRS record no. HY31NW 114 with a grid reference of HY32201565. Which places it much closer to the highest point of Grimeston district than I had realised. The summit is at HY323157 and I had my eye on a very small tump there as prominent. Luck being with me by now the gate just before the first house this side lay open, and I seized the chance for a closer view. What I see is a lot more than is visible than I'd seen from the road before. Which simply affirms that before dismissing a site it is necessary to have been on it, not simply viewed from a distance, however small that distance may be. Rather than a pimple I found a slight but broad rise with noticeable topography. Ah, but from the ground I could not get enough height to take photos of what I found, my images only showed lowly bumps with a few small stones exposed even though there is enough stuff to show darkly on the aerial photo accompanying the Henge record on CANMORE. Certainly there are several types of site around here ; for instance there's Henge, the summit [I believe], Staney Hill Standing Stone (HY31NW 10 at HY31951567), then at no great distance on the eastern side of the Stoneyhill Road are 'Feolquoy' barrow (HY31NW 20 at HY31761571), a chambered long cairn (HY31NW 51 at HY3164158) and HY31NW 106 at HY318157 consisting of several stones some think either were part of a stone circle or intended to be one. Plus there is something going on with that brood sweep of large stones trailing eastwards from close by the long cairn. Stopping short of Newark I reversed direction back onto the Germiston Road. On my right a lesser road attracts my attention. The nearest building has one of those peedie bell-towers (I think that's the right term) at the far end of the roof. And before becoming a house this started off life as the Kenwood Congregational Church. An impressive tall drystane wall runs beside the road, and because the kirk sits in one corner rather than centrally it might well pre-date that. On my photos I see that the far end of the wall is in actuality a seperate segment. The corner is curved, so I wonder if this is earlier yet. All of which is pure conjecture as I continued down into Lankskaill. There are several steading buildings at Fursbreck but also the Germiston threshing mill. The mill is by the burn on the right, identifiable by a square green door on one end. Though I took pictures of several of the buildings I didn't know what I was seeing or I would have made a point of photographing the wheellpit at the side of the mill. You have to be careful using a camera near houses if you are a solitaire, so my directions were limited. Down at Vola I turned left again ansd struck out for the south leg of the Germiston Road. There are some lovely views to be had here. There are several interesting bumps at Hindatown, so it is unsurprising there are several mounds and tumuli in the vicinity of Nistaben and West Nistaben. Coming back up towards the main road I saw a long ruin to the north, which must be Stoneywoo. There were two buildings, one with its remaining end towards me and the other across my line of sight with both ends still standing. One of those ends comes with a circular structure which is most likely a corn kiln. Or that whole building was a kiln-barn. From the junction with the Harray Road the hills of Binscarth follow you down to the main road with a long line of trees even before the wood itself is reached, as if the whole hillside were wooded. Must have been a verly low tide as coming into Finstown the Ouse held my eyes, the sides of the tidal inlet very exposed.

Labels: Binscarth, Grimeston threshing mill, Henge, Kenwood Congregational Church, Staney Hill, Stoneywoo, Wasdale

To save a little time, and perform last August's journey with several reversals, I took the bus to the Harray Road junction. Today's walk I undertook in order to confirm my memory of a couple of things I saw walking the farmroad to Winksetter back then as well as place them more firmly on my map [good job because I had confused two completely different ruins !]. The bog cotton has put on a magnificent display this year. Starting at the Harray junction I could have happily spent several hours simply photographing all the clumps and swathes whitening the countryside with their glossy heads. And then there were the other blooms. Throughout my travel I saw several different species in combinations such that I could go on to take pics of several 'pairings' at each place after snapping the initial grouping. The first patch lay on the verge ; orchids, daisies, trefoil, kidney vetch and buttercups. Ragged Robin pierced the bog cotton with its pink ribbons sometimes. The WWII structures came further up the Harray Road than I thought, having remembered them as much nearer the stuff by the junction whereas actually they are near the southern end of the Grimeston Road, opposite Duntroon. They're still standing several courses high. There is still no record for them, but knowing their whereabouts I can read their locations from CANMAP as being at HY33741431 and 33801439, by the north side of the track show running around the southern end of the loch and up to the farmtrack. At the crossroads with the Stoneyhill Road instead of going straight over the Howe road to Winksetter I reversed last August journey by continuing up the Harray Road then turning right onto the Lyde road and thence down the Manse Road to reach Howe and Geroin. Where this straightens out looking to the east I could clearly see what had been a fairly broad farmtrack running through a roadside field alongside the northern fieldwall. It presents like an old farmroad but comes to a halt where it meets other fields at a tear-shaped enclosure. On the map it points meannglessly north of Trattlaquoy, but then I remember the mound I found where the Trattlaquoy road meets the Lyde Road, and that seems a likely fit for a terminus whatever it used to be. From modern Nettletar about half to two-thirds of the way to the Geroin farmtrack if you look NW of road to about halfway between that and Burn of Nettleton there is a cist site, HY31NW 109 at HY3283017460, which contained a crouched inhumation with a calibrated date of 3030~2620. Continuing this line quickly brings you to another cist site, HY31NW 102 at HY32881751, on the southern side of a hillock - one can imagine that this grassy knoll once extended as far as the first cist. The 2004 excavation found the second cist to be made up of four interconnected side slabs with horizontal base slabs at the centre. This dates later, to the Bronze Age (calibrated dates of 1880~1690 and 1740~1530). On the central floor they found copper-alloy, burnt bone and pottery. Where the road bends again a short track leads to Geroin Cottage - in "Harray - Orkney's Inland Parish" the Germiston tunship map places the Fa'an Stane O'How's position prior to break up and removal at the point of the field below the cottage i.e. HY33151705. A track by the western fieldwall goes to the point (and there is/was a nearby well/wellspring, which may be a connection with the stone). I had hoped to find another candidate for the mound Howe had been named for but coming from this direction there are so many possible mounds either side of the road and nothing to the undulating landscape that looks other than natural. Some rain came to try dampen my spirits. I had opted to take a packamac (rather than my nowadays uncloseable lightest jacket). Which kept the water out only to hold the heat in ! At least full blazing sun never came out this day. Still tempting to cut my walk short at the next junction. However I can be unbelievably stubborn and needed to place things accurately so I didn't make a major boo-boo in the blog. When the showers finally left I then 'hit' clouds of midges, my flailing hands mostly to no account. Became even worse when I turned right at the junction, not stopping until almost at the farm. In a field south of the road are the remains of a large quarry. On the opposite side of the farmtrack a field at HY338167 is associated with the names Howinawheel and Howinalinda in the Harray book. The first element appears to denote a larger mound like the sixty-footer Howana Gruna. Wheel could refer to resting e.g. the pausing of a funeral cortege or a herders rest. Howinalidna, Heuon a Lidna in the 1790's, means 'mound in the slope'. Which is a pity as I can see at least three suspect bumps in the field, no hill-slope in my sight. This hasn't always been a rectilinear field - in the earlier maps a very roughly circular piece of land is shown instead. Could it be that rather than being the name of a mound Howina-wheel refers to a circular enclosure containing Howinalidna ? For some reason my memory had placed my putative unrecorded Winksetter mound where the quarry is, rather than at HY343167 behind Winksetter. This is oh so not a quarry, there are oodles of these depicted on the maps elsewhere and none of them anywhere near - all I could find nearby having been a small triangular body of water. This is a very busy area archaeologically, one of dozens on Orkney Mainland. From the modern buildings look south to the earlier Winksetter and then some 200 yards to the east of that Howan mound (HY31NW 17 at HY34211652) sits at ~250' OD close to the W end of a prominent ridge. The barrow's grass covers an earthen mound mixed with small stones. Before parts were removed (at the end of the 19thC or start of the 20th) this tumulus was much bigger than its present 39'D and 2.5-3' height. 250-300 yards SW of the farmhouse used to be a very large burnt mound, HY31NW 21, with a bit of a hollow on one side. It sat in a field corner with a dyke running across it and in tight association with a well at its SW side. Of course burnt materials do not only a burnt mound make, pity we don't know what they were. Roughly 500 yards east of Winksetter two mounds 12~15' are reported close together on the hill (and that is all that is known of them). Yet further away there might be settlement remains, HY31NW 19, on a piece of marshy ground periodically damp enough to be called the Loch of Shunan [not to be confused with The Shunan, a full-time loch further north]. The original report is that the scant remains of a stone structure at the foot of a hill were spread over a large area, with flint arrowheads and tools found on adjacent lands. The only stones now found, at HY34191610, don't resemble anything (they are "on a slight eminence" anyway). Going north of the track I was on the south outlier of Knowes of Trotty is no great distance away.at HY34201727 . Having placed 'my' mound on the map as best I could I turned around to head straight back. I thought I would quickly draw level with a couple coming back from the Knowes of Trotty barrow cemetery. Then Flora called. Several more of those flower groupings, only in miniature. Cinquefoil dominated, then tiny white cross-shaped flowers and almost equally small pale purple flowers with light violet honey-guides and stamens like long eyelashes (a speedwell ?). Spent some time trying for the right shots. On the way back to the Harray Road located and placed on the map the kiln-barn and adjacent mound (HY32931635 and HY330163). Wonder if Bruntquina 'burnt enclosure' field is a reference to (what had been) the 'collection of ancient buildings' that Tufta next door owed its name to. Thought about following the Tufta road up around but opted for the straight deal instead - enough excitement for one day, uncertain weather etc. Tempted to have another peek at the high point of Germiston. Thought I could add nothing more. Only afterwards, on using CANMAP another time, did I find that Henge now has an NMRS record and an aerial view that shows it to be further upfield than I realised, so that rather than the summit looking westwards over Henge it is almost directly due east !! Because both features are visible. Germiston top is a rough irregular oval whilst Henge is an almost too perfect circle delineated by bright arcs (?water). The photo shows Henge perimeter clipped by the road, but before this road a track ran through the circle. Is it a coincidence that the Sandwick Road formerly ran through the Ring of Brodgar or could there have been a reason to drive animals this way, a fireless Beltane ?? Archaeological research has no finality. Down at the Refuge junction I turned off into Wasdale. The Slap of Setter was the opening in the boundary dyke seperating Firth from Harray and there are a few interesting erect stones both sides of the road until you get to the end of the Seatter farmroad. Still can't find a name for the ruin at the junction, most annoying. Birds pleeping at me as I neared the loch shore, then one perched on a nearby post. Thought this an over-sized plover at first but soon realsed that it wasnae - something about the beak. Later worked out it were a sandpiper, but even a bird book stuffed full of photos couldn't help me narrow it down and no-one on Orkney Live has said owt. The good thing about the nesting season is that as I walked along the sandpiper let me get quite close before flying off a few more posts away. In fact this was a pair of birds - mostly one parent flirting with me on the roadside fence whilst another one held the shore. Continued in this fashion for a fair while before they left me alone. It seemed to me that the islet was the most exposed I had ever seen it. Remembering that an archaeologist reckoned on there having been an 'apron' it suddenly occured to me that perhaps causeways and 'aprons' go together the way that a broch tower entrance and its guard-cells do. Looking at a photo later the face of a stone in the causeway looked to have moulding. Next photo showed several more, but appearing more geological in appearance, thin strata layers. Not the kind of stones I have come across in Orkney if they are. So are they natural and brought here or are they from the former kirk on the island. Please, oh pretty please. A gate sits across the next bit of track but the large stone block at the wall end is above this. Obviously meant for a larger, perhaps more ornamental, gate, but could have been re-used from another place it seems to me. Took a few more pictures of the Howe Harper cairn on the hillside above. Still of the opinion that where it is and how it sits very like Cuween or Whiteford Hill tombs. Probably someone else thought that too, hence the ? excavation scar. Though the trail is still deeply rutted at least today the water did not fill them in. Below the low trees there were beautifully underlit clumps of fern with a topping of sunlight. Didn't go through the wood as I had to confirm that there are no signs to prohibit vehicles parking at this end when kie occupy the field by the other. There aren't. Just be sensible. Anyways the farm is a very interesting mix of styles and structiures. From this direction the first thing that hits you is a blue-tinged corrugated iron pyramidion topping a square tower with doorways (I take it) top and bottom. Come to the top of the road and there is another such structure without the blue hue. At the top this one has a small window or slide surmounted by a decorative slab arch. Then comes the long building I noticed before. Below the eaves are two rows of projecting horizontal slabs. Central to these is a blocked-off window, the thin slabs at its bottom 'breaking into' the lower row and having an extra-long lintel across the top. Below all these is a large sliding wood door. Downhill has more normal window spaces and doorways.The downhill end forms part of the entrance into the farm. The end of this building has a a big wide round arched doorway with damn thick walls. And above an oriel window. First thought is stables. The other side of the entrance is a smaller building with a hgh hipped corner which, IIRC, makes it easier for carriages to turn round. Eighteenth or nineteenth century I'd hazard. These are only some of the buildings here. Having taken the edge off my curiosity I continued to the main road and turned left. I reached the bus shelter opposite Baikie's Stores with time to spare.

Labels: Binscarth, Bruntquina, cist, Fa'an Stane O'How, Geroin, Henge, Howan, Howe Harper, Howinalidna, Howinawheel, Loch of Shunan, Trattlaquoy, Wasdale

Alighted at Finstown and headed off down to Binscarth Wood, a plantation like every Orcadian wood except Berriedale on Hoy. You cross into the trees where the millstream exits the wood (having started life from the southern end of the Loch of Wasdale then taken a circuitous route) but can then take a farmtrack above them if in a grand hurry - this has a copse strip running alongside for interest. Fortunately this area was dry, as it does hold a lot of moisture that somtimed turns the track to mud. In times past this wood has been turned ito an ornament by the use of wall-lined paths wending their way hither and thither, and you can still follow these in parts. Right near the beginning in a clear space next the burn a tree stump played host to several large pale mottled toadstools. These are about a handspan and I think they might be beefsteak fungus. Some were turning an inky black as they themselves decomposed after these fruiting bodies had given their all for the great mother below. Next to the stump were further fungi, the yellow of chanterelles but not stuck together, flat-capped and utterly dwarfed by an ash key beside them. Bairns and the child-like enjoy a curve in the burn you can often cross, and where there is water furniture relating to its former use as a millstream. Down here the wood is well wooded and tree limbs can make you scramble. But as I head away from the burn and uphill the top corner is almost regimented, light and airy with trees well-spaced and straight trunked. This almost ornamental stand goes back to the mansion house heyday (there was a seperate greenhouse area east of Binscarth House) as the plants are not native - on the ground beneath there are long soft cones like the tip of a pangolin's tail. Coming out of this wood there is a walled 'garden' set back below the house. When NoSAS were based at Binscarth we would chop wood gathered here, but I'm fairly sure this piece isn't open to the public so I don't go there now - I wonder if the naturalists still rent it from the guv. The track now goes between hedgerows, and since the trail became official this has become rather churned up, forming big muddy puddles after bad weather (not quite as bad as the Seatter track though). This brings you out into Wasdale, which once hosted a market of sorts. Down in the loch the islet is enchanting as ever, softly curved with an off-centre pimple and having a penumbra of water-loving grass fanned about it like the rings around Saturn. Just relised the profile is like a shield-boss, I knew there was something niggling at me. As I see it there are two ways of looking at this site's watery ring, that the vegetation-less channel about the land is due to suppression by buried stonework or that it represents a stoneless gap between the islet and buried stonework (not wide enough to be outbuildings I feel). This day the causeway is underwater as per usual. It seems to me that the farm has been better in the past - as well as the market there is a disused quarry stretched across the hillside above. I have still been unable to find a name for the steading remains sitting above the Wasdale track at the junction with that going up to Setter. The Dyke of Setter marks the boundary between Firth and Harray, the Slap of Setter being where there was a gap (in Harray only Winksetter tunship lacks slaps). My next turning point is just beyond Rosebank (which has no age to it). At the junction with the Howe road a ruin on a slight rise is is down on the NMRS as Woodwyn- it isn't named on the 25", so I would place it with Boardhouse ? What isn't on NMRS is a longer building of several parts. further east at HY32931635. I would have thought it had once beem important because rather than drystone places such as the wall corners use carefully carved stone. Possibly the stone came from somewhere else though, or an earlier structure, as its use is a little random in parts. Only one small section of roof remains in place. At the southern end is what seems to have been a kiln - a kiln barn perhaps, or another walkerhouse. I imagine the ruin I believe to be Stoneywoo would have looked like this. This ruin is seperated from Tufta by a field called Bruntquina. IIRC quina is a variant of quoys, which would give Bruntquina as 'burnt enclosure'. Tufta is (I gather) the plural of toft and meant a collection of ancient buildings. Would be nice if the ruin had been the original Tufta but it is equally close to Appiehouse. When I saw stones eposed in a mound south of it in the same field I thought I had found that Howe was named after, only a year later do I know I confused Tufta with Howe, though it is the only mound before reaching Winksetter to show likely evidence for being other than a grass-covered earthen hillock it ain't much. The level (well, kind of level) piece of my walk ended just beyond Winksetter a little further on from where you start north for the Knowes of Trotty (the seperate mounds of the barrow cemetery almost visible to the unaided eye). At this part you are several metres above the valley floor. I go to the edge of a big bend and below me see another unmarked little ruin, perhaps a shieling for a seasonal farm labourer. This bit of the farmtrack has been cut into the hillside more laterally than vertically. Coming around the corner of the bump/hillock I could see something behind and climbed up over it to investigate. There is a long mound with a stepped profile like a low-backed settee viewed from the front and a bump by one end. Unlike the nearby heathery slopes it has a covering of bright green grass. There are large stones scattered liberally on and in it, a few with square corners. When I went back nearly a year later going by the fences and walls I made it out to be roughly at HY343167 (it lies between one of each). The sceptic in me said it might be an old quarry, but though the area is peppered with disused quarries on the maps it is well away from all the quarries shown on the 1st O.S. and subsequently. Coming back I decide to extend my walk by going up the Howe road to the Lyde Road, a lovely rolling farmroad, a dark ribbon. Past Manse I turn left over to the main road. That is when my body announced my exhaustion ! The track on the other side goes around the top of the hill and can be used to avoid a tricky corner. Going down the main road there is a single-storey stone building with a slight L-shape, 18th/19thC I would guess by the small roof slabs the size of tiles. This is down as Brough smithy, HY31NW 65 at HY3197917216, described as rubble-built. The L bit at the left has a piece blocked off by red bricks. This was the access to the hearth within this gable end, which has two peedie windows and a broad chimney (this now with a strong-ish lean) as if the ground floor had been taken off of your average two-storey house. What I myself find cute is small rubble-built enclosure abutting the north end, built of stones of much more variable sizes than the smithy - and no mortar either IIRC. Must have gone down the Stoneyhill Road and across to the north leg of the Grimeston road as I took another picture of the summit (HY323157) of Grimeston tunship. This is in the same field as the standing stone. I have a feeling that what I picked out at the summit relates to the Henge site in the field across the road (now on record as HY31NW 114 at HY32201565). Still looks like a tiny tump from the road, but in April 2013 discovered this to be highly deceptive as well as it's having an even closer association with the henge (rather than simply being up high overlooking the site). Once more back onto the main road, and down the final straight to the junction, I saw again two wartime remains in the corner of a field on the east side of the road. Surely I will have snapped them from roadside before and no energy left to enter for more now. Coming to the junction there are lovely views of Bincarth's wood and hedgerows, strung out with Wideford Hill visible in the far distance. Took a couple of pics of the Bincarth Farm complex and one of the buildings I could see had a strange piece on one side with two parallel lines of horizontal slabs leaving a space as if some long large billlboard had been taken away. So a year later I made a point of examining the farm more closely and thoroughly. And then I took the bus home.

Labels: Binscarth, Brough smithy, Bruntquina, causeway, Grimeston, Henge, Staney Hill, Tufta, Wasdale in Firth, Winksetter

unHenged idolising Harray
Many thanks to Andrew Appleby, archaeologist-turned-potter, for providing info' additional to his article in "Orkney Today" of August 26th 2010. It is he who found evidence for a stalled cairn that, when brought to the attention of the Henshalls by farmer Yorston, turned out to be the Staney Hill long cairn [I have found that the Lesser Wall of Brodgar is aligned to it through the Lochview standing stone pair]. This cairn is two fields NW of the largest road circuit hereabouts. Between this road and the Nearhouse circuit is the Staney Hill Standing Stone. Bounded by the latter circuit is the site Andrew found and called Henge (in recent years this whole field has been investigated as such by a lad doing an archaeological thesis). Starting in 1977/8 with the observation of a low bank he eventually discovered it to be a ring 150' across with a ditch and bank each of 15' width (BA he said). On subsequent visits he "traced banks leading in an alignment from its circumference." Later Colin Richards and Jane Downes declared it to be a saucer barrow, the largest in the north of Britain. The first thing that brought the Henge field (HY321155) to his attention was finding a small figurine in 1976, which had come from a field with an outlier to the bank. The Whins Wifie [which he also calls the Venus of the Whins or Grimeston Girlie] would seem to be a kind of puppet, using the ?nates to present the figurine in a divine re-enactment or play. It can be made to stand - a puzzle aspect ? Basically the Grimeston Girlie resembles two globs of clay placed together, with two 'dimples' [?buttocks] as the potter's pinches. She is 45mm high with body 32mm wide measuring 30mm to the neck, which varies 21-27mm wide - the 'dimples' are 14mm diameter.
On one of his first visits to Orkney, aged 15, Andrew find a less portable figurine somewhere around the Springfield quarry (HY331158). He showed it to the [pre Anne Brundle] Tankerness House Museum who said they already had many of these, allowing him to keep it. The Springfield Quarryman is slightly asymmetric and measures 38cm high by 5cm thick, from base 26cm to neck which is 8cm wide, eyes 2.5cm wide. It looks like something from Ireland or out of a Danish bog and is properly man-shaped with additionally eyes and nose and perhaps a mouth. Several similar idols have been found in the Harrray tunships of Grimeston and Overbrough. In 1927 the site of Dale (south of the quarry) with its erdhus, long cist etc. was excavated. From the souterrain's causeway came an irregular stone 43cm by a maximum 20cm and 50-75mm thick. It shared a picked groove opposite the broad end with an idol whose dimensions are not given. On a photo in P.S.A.S. 62 it appears as an upper right circle quadrant with very bulging arc and having the head topping the square corner.
In "The Orkney Herald" of October 4th 1933 there is a photo of two idols with heads and another ancient stone, found in a grassy circle on the Brecks of Netherbrough. The December 6th 1933 edition gives further details of the find site and another photo. This place had been until taken into cultivation a few years previous a "peculiar" spot some 40'D having a slightly sunken centre and partly raised circumference. From by the former came a piece of incised oval sandstone 36cm long by maximum width 23cm having a roughly bored hole roughly 25mm across. The sandstone idols were found vertical and projecting a little above the surface at the circle's outer edge. The surfaces were natural and had then had the tops rounded to form the heads. One was 48cm by 36cm and the other 38cm by 33cm.
The second article mentions a similar idol to the two being still in the possession of the Netherbrough farm where it had been found many years before. Another had been found somewhere in Birsay and another on South Ronaldsay. It is possible that this last is confusion with two found at Ronaldshay in Zetland.

Labels: Dale, Grimeston, Henge, idols, Overbrough, saucer barrow, Springfield, Staneyhill

WALLS I SCREAM

Regarding the Ness of Brodgar complex the present feeling is still that this seperates a landscape of the dead featuring the Ring of Brodgar from a land of the living featuring the Standing Stones of Stenness. However on the north side of the Brodgar bridge is a large mound that is now believed to be a chambered tomb. In modern times this first appears as Kokna-Cumming, described as a burnt mound. Probably not long after this mention the location was lost. Then an unrecorded excavation found an arrangement of circular walls, leading to its interpretation as a broch (there was another broch [Big Howe ,now only a rise in a field] near the Stones of Stenness). However when geophysics recently revealed evidence of tiering the resemblance to sites such as the Wideford Hill cairn led to the re-think. Until this season the most talked about feature of the Ness of Brodgar complex was still the extremely wide 'Great Wall' that ran across the ness from loch to loch at the site's northern end. Now attention has shifted to the 'cathedral', probably the largest Neolithic building yet found in Europe (or at least the UK), stretching across a large area of the site and disappearing under the present Lochview buildings. This has features resembling Maes Howe, to which it is aligned. This
year they did a small trial excavation on the other side of Lochview and found the 'lesser wall of Brodgar'. This isn't quite as wide as the 'Great Wall' but stands at least 1.4m high on the southern face - it has only been dug into a little, and only on that side, so could go down much further. This is at right angles to the Brodgar standing stone pair that sit in the Lochview garden, and if it cuts across the ness in similar fashion to the 'Great Wall' looks likely to bisect the area between them [I still suspect something of the gatepost pair on a rise at the Brodgar farm itself, even if they are only replacements or show where something could damage the plough]. The feeling is that this marks the southern edge of the Ness of Brodgar complex. If Kokna-Cumming is a tomb what is its relationship to the complex [with The Howe in mind are we sure that Big Howe was only a greenfield broch?[ and what would it mean to the proponents of a living/dead dichotomy for the main Stenness monuments ? Or could it be that the mound is not a tomb either but yet anothe addition to the Ness of Brodgar menagerie ?
The antiquarians recorded quaint names for the main Brodgar monuments [Broidgar in an early newspaper account]. These have been dismissed as fanciful inventions but could be Anglicisations or translations of proper Orcadian names, as has happened
with the likes of Mine Howe and Towerhill. The Standing Stones of Stenness was the Circle of the Moon. The large hearth is formed by four stones of standing stone dimensions and runs N/S E/W but as presently setup the 'altar'/'dolmen' stone setting is at a slight angle. Perhaps that is because as is hypothesised the latter had been used to frame Maes Howe. The Watch Stone, along with a large stub found during roadmaking, is thought to be perhaps part of the SE arc of another circle [call it the Watch Circle]. I haven't heard of any further stones being located by underwater survey and so assume this to have been even more incomplete than the Stones of Stenness [the current position on that circle] or been extensively robbed for a later site. The Comet Stone is a stone arrangement but always referred to as a standing stone because the original surveyor/antiquarian never completed his investigations. Next is the Ring of Brodgar, alias the Circle of the Moon. Finally up on the hill is the Ring [/Rim] of Bookan, a henge monument called the Circle of Stars. It has been noted that this is of similar dimensions to the Stones of Stenness and also has a central setting. Unfortunately a powerful 19th century laird adapted this to be the seat of his Thing, so its original complexion is unknown. The Comet Stone is the tallest surviving part on the mound of a NW/SE aligned setting, an unequal tee being obvious. To the NW it points to the Ring of Bookan, the Ring of Brodgar lies in the extended NW/SW quadrant. NE points towards the Staney Hill standing stone and to the Henge multi-period site of which it is likely a part [apart from a talk by the student involved there doesn't even appear to be even grey literature yet - hopefully when he completes his thesis...]. SE probably points to the 'Watch Circle', but more importantly the short arm of the tee frames the Ness of Brodgar perfectly [and probably the Stones of Stenness beyond too, though I couldn't see that far with what I had]. Could it be that the Comet Stone site is like a grand surveyor's tool ??

Labels: Comet, Henge, Ness of Brodgar, Watch Stone

COMET STONE

This site shows how size isn't everything. There was a complicated set of ceremonies surrounding matrimony involving all three rings and another Bookan site. Though nothing is recorded for this place, if the early name of Ulie Stane comes from
dialect ullie 'oil' might I suggest a reference to chrism and perhaps ceremonies surrounding childbirth ? Note that this was the way to the Ring of Brodgar on the old track that ran through the "sacred monuments", making it a gatekeeper kind-of - in the 19th century gentlemen still doffed their caps to it.

[My stone measurements are likely accurate but the distances between them and across the mound are as near as I could manage alone. {NMRS converted to metric} ]
The Comet Stone aligns NW/SE and sits in a depression presently measuring 2.7m by 2.3m and 20cm deep. The main stone stands 1.88m at the SE end {1.75m} and 1.97m at the NW, depth 27-28cm {29cm}, width 70cm at base increasing to 73 {76cm}.
Measured height differs enough from NMRS to indicate surface erosion [there is a long scrape in the northern half too]. "Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky" by Trevor Garnham gives an alignment to Maes Howe. but unless my compass reading is absolutely useless is incorrect this is not so, explaining why the meticulous antiquarians would miss such a thing- the alignment would seem, rather, to carry on to the Ring of Bookan [though this is on the hillslope invisible from here unless it stood higher formerly or had a superstructure such as a stone ring or posts] and perhaps ? to something roughly in the Dowsgarth region in the other direction. This NW/SE alignment is shared by the Stanerandy Tumulus (for a long while thought to be standing stones) and the Deepdale Stones, both on Mainland, and the Langsteeen on Rousay - we know so few s.s. orientations that there could well be more. The relationship with the recorded 'stubs' is striking, forming a geometric unequal tee-formation.
Following the alignment 2.97m {2.67m} brings you to the western edge of Stub i and from that 2.75m takes you to the eastern edge of Stub ii. These define the mound's axes. Axis A , defined by Comet to Stub i 'W', is perpendicular to Axis B which is along the line of the two stubs (a NE/SW alignment shared with the Watch Stone stump and the Spurdagrove s.s. pair). Using 'mound' for the area currently left rough then the mound is 16~16.5m along Axis A and ~11m along Axis B - NMRS gives approximate size of 13.7x12.8 and ~80cm high. At the edge, 6.5m from the Comet Stone's SE end only a few inches away [<5deg] from where Axis A meets the SE periphery, there can be seen the top of another stone, call it Stub iii, that is probably like to Stub i except that only the very top is showing - careful ground prodding proves the top extends beyond the visible surface and I imagine if more were exposed the axial fit might be closer still (Stub iii is level with the grass and has a smooth appearance, not layered like the other three recorded stones). Similarly a few inches off Axis B , though roughly a metre short of where this meets the NE periphery, there is a roughly rectangular prostrate Slab 3.98m from Stub i 'E'. There's a slight space underneath where the lower surface has 'flaked' loose fragments [I presume they are from this leastways]. Careful search failed to disclose any further stones, so the fact that these appear to mark the axes ends is fascinating (though what of the other ends ?).

Used the 10x zoom on my digital camera [380mm equivalent] to examine three of the directions - for even if the indication from the stubs to the SW was a particular one of the lesser mounds without knowledge of any specific importance it is only presently referrable to chance. Looking along the Comet Stone in conjunction with stub i the Ness of Brodgar is perfectly framed, like looking down the barrel of a gun. From the Comet Stone alone to the SE, apart from the Orphir area, the only possibilty is the putative lost stone circle incorporating the Watch Stone. Viewing along the stubs to the NE confirms that it has Staney Hill in its sights, the standing stone being fractionally left of centre with the 'new' site of Henge to its right [both sides of the Grimeston road]. Disappointed to find the white cottage in the NW direction, which means disregard my previous photo info as the Ring of Bookan is on the LH side of the cottage to its left ! As this alignment passes to the east of the Ring of Brodgar I had read this as an ignoring that circle, but someone could instead read the two axes NW and SW directions marking out the area about it instead.

Stub i 73 x 23 and 16 & 19cm exposed height at ends, depth unknown - evidence of post-mediaeval [?modern] break at NE end [Stub i 'E']
Stub ii 29 x 30 and 29cm exposed height, depth unknown [still whole ??]
Stub iii minimum 20cm down in mound, surface 23 [19 visible] by 15cm, depth unknown
Slab almost entirely exposed, 40x36 cm and 6cm thick at least (stone fragments in 4cm space beneath it)

Labels: Henge, Ness of Brodgar, Ring of Bookan, Ring of Brodgar, Staneyhill, Stoney Hill, Watch Stone