Orcadian landscapes

Took the bus to Lighthouse Corner. Had tons of time so went down to have a look at Skaill. The church has only been called St Ninian's since a steamship of that name ran aground in 1903. Going between the farm and the kirk are two steep-sided nausts. One of these has next to it a wooden vessel of the kind I later saw near Balfour Castle. It is mounted on a pair of wheels near the sloping front, which hinges down. I'm sure I should know what this object is, but cannot remember. Lookin past it I see a curving bank between the kirkyard wall and the sea and in the distance the Horse of Copinsay. After a brief walk on the beach I climb up onto the cliff and between the burial ground and the sea is a broad flat area. I feel that I am walking some early modern farm track (perhaps to the gravel pit on the 1st O.S.), with the bank cast up to protect it from the waves. However it would seem I am looking at part of an ancient sand-dune called Howan (HY50NE 21 at HY 5889 0633) that had produced Iron Age tools long before a trial trench was was excavated. In 1964 the OS reported a thin layer of dark silt in a grass-covered "inner circle" bank that would have been about 7m in diameter (which seems smaller than what I saw). Visible in the cliff-face, the deposit included a little domestic midden but produced ard marks of possibly Late Bronze Age date. So despite earlier finds not Broch Age. However I just cannot believe that this bank came about simply at the hand of Nature. Knowing how ancient Orcadians loved to use the natural to form structures etc I wonder if this could be a ringwork like that hypothesised for Campston/Venikelday over in St Andrew's. In 1982 Mr Foubister found fragments of prehistoric buildings between the Howan and the kirkyard's (present?) SE corner. Retracing my steps to Lighthouse Corner I turn left onto the road running along the base of Esnaphy Hill. On the lower slope a whole heap of hedges and shrubs sit below the buildings at Copady (I presume it is called that still). Up ahead is a dirt track. I quickly establish that this isn't the way to go, it simply turns back to the farm slightly upslope of Copady at Diamonds. At the next corner I turn right and past Watermoss before turning uphill on a bearing for Seatter. A ruin on the right is Millfield. As far back as 1880 the Orkney Name Book records that stone tools had been found at various times on this croft. There were two mounds (what is now) two fields to the east, west of Nether Stove, in what are now two fields. And to show that one should always take reports of site destruction/loss with a pinch of salt - especially out in the field - though supposedly gone by 1930 through cultivation they were only hidden by pasture, one sited at HY57450693 and the other surviving as a low mound at HY57430704. This 9mD 'eminence' is only 0.6m high, so probably hidden by grass until you're right on top of it - what with climate warming the grass never stops growing in winter even in Orkney now, so glad I managed some slight sites before this happened as you can barely make them out now even when you remember where they are !! Seatter has quite a lot of buildings. I suspect some to be wartime as the structures on top of Ward Hill are the remains of a Chain Home Low radar station called grandly R.A.F. Deerness. On top of this Warthill, at Deerness highest point, is a burnt earth and stone mound of uncertain date. It is suggested that this,HY50NE 7 at HY 5689 0739, is the varda 'beacon' itself rather than something truly prehistoric. Nothing to stop it being both, like e.g. The Wart on Hoxa Hill. The mound is aligned E/W and measures 23 x 14 x 2m. Near the northern side of the road at HY56910705 an old well is capped at ground level by several thin slabs. I suspect not all are original. At some stage late on a primitive (?concrete/conglomerate) covered drain has been made from this to the road, where the end is capped by a single thin slab. When this field is waterlogged the water will discharge over the road. Probably always has, as the field on the other side coming up to the next turn contains two burnt mounds of similar dimensions, some 10 x 7 x 0.4m each. They're both covered by grass and I only identify the further one because of the visible stonework. Go under the names of Millfield or Greentoft, HY50NE 3 at HY56860698 and HY56920699. One, hopefully the further west one that I spotted, went by the individual name of Koffer Howe. The archaeologists are puzzled by the name. However it could be coffer as in a burial or perhaps Khaffir as a reference to dark burnt material. Turning the corner all of the previous mounds are dwarfed by another mound on the same side of the road with its longer side facing it. HY50NE 41 at HY56700682 also goes under the name Greentoft, stands over a man' height at a little over 2m high and is 50m long by 17m high. When under the plough not only burny material comes up but red stones too. The grass-covered slopes appear gentle to me, with the faintest hint of a cresecent face. The rusty gate to the field stands between erect stones. The left one is marvellously gnarled. Before you come to the corner the Denwick road branches off upslope on the right. Either side of the road is the site of Bloody Quoy ( HY50NE 6 at HY56670696, also Anglicised as Blood Field) which preceded its creation by millenia, going by the polished granitic cushion mace-head found here, probably on the northern side, measuring 4 5/8" long by 2¼" wide by 1¼" thick. Also called after nearby Greentoft. I think the record is a little confused about the other find - at Delday a G Delday found a long cist whilst ploughing, 5' long, 3'6" deep but only 1'8" wide. The heaped bones of two skeltons were found at either end. A later farmer reported near the cist site an ~20mD cairn-like feature straddling the road included burnt earth and shells. Amongst the rough stones of which this was composed one strongly resembled a trough quern, which is another indicator of a Neolithic date. Coming to Noltland it is a fine tidy piece appealing to the Romantic view. Part of the enclosure is a curving stone wall by the road. There is a short tree with sparse spreading branches making it wide like some pollard, which I'm sure it isn't. Next to that ivy shining brightly the day fills the space between two doors either side of the end of a stone block building that looks to be free-standing. The romantic ruin comes after that. Or maybe it's two ? This blends seamlessly into a roofed bit. Finally there's the present dwelling by the road clad in white. Taken altogether it does have the feel of buildings mostly enclosing the central space. At the crossroads I turn left again. Here we are, back in the formal 19thC with a church, manse and school [the Free School House started off as Rosevale].I am intrigued by a place called Malisburgh about which I can find nothing. A grand two-storey house but not a mansion house. From the main road it appeared to me to have a low walled garden in front and to the sides, however this is an illusion caused by dark bushes bordering the fences of a ?field and other pieces. Looking up to the former United Free Church of Deerness there is a long natural mound called Howan Blo (HY50NE 5 at HY571060). It is some hundred yards south of the kirk but looks closer from the main road. Here over the course of a few years Mr Aim, the farmer at Blow(e)s, came across internments near its crest in 1929 and 1932 (the record says 1933, but Callendar's article from that October refers the discovery to "January last"). On both occasions he covered the finds until the archaeologists came. In early March 1929 whilst digging into the clay his plough lifted the coverstone of a short cist containing an eight inch high dolomitic steatite urn and potsherds from a small urn. The cist was hollowed into a circular depresssion 4-5" deep in the centre, floored with stone flakes averaging some 5" square and ¼" thick. In plan it was approx. 20" by 16" with sides of bluish Orkney sandstone slabs each 18" deep and 1½" thick. There was a layer of burnt human bones 5-6" deep. After excavation the farmer put the remains back and covered the find. in January 1932 Mr Aim made another find only a few feet away. This consisted of a Bronze Age cinerary urn and fragments of a smaller one, both of clay. The large urn held bone ash and potsherds. When the archaeologists came and did their excavation they found an urn-shaped cavity under a coverstone just five feet away, though it had never held an urn. It measured some 15" deep and 12" wide diminishing to 5", and was almost completely filled with the dark greasy remains of bones. Though the urn passed to the museum the rest was re-buried as before. Later attempts to locate these proved unsuccessful. I'd love to know when the church was built, because with names such as Millhill just to the east and Little Millhouse not far to the SSW this could be a candidate for the Milldam Farm site. Reaching Lighthouse Corner again I find myself with time still before the next bus. And even though it will be the last of the day I decide for a quick walk, sort of, and head down the Aikerskaill road for the coast. Only one corner survives intact of a drystane building near (I think) Grundigar. Apparently this was Steinflett. There are piles of stones in proximity, only they come from several sources. And there is a modern standpipe by the corner. I love that corner honeyed by the low light. The next ruin is probably of Howes, near Aikerskaill if I remember aright. It survives roofless but pactically entire, with several stone block buildings of different sizes and some with high pitched gable ends. Finally reaching the coast I thought about going east, along the track that conceals the foundations of a linear settlement to the Point of Ayre, because it looks as if you could continue anti-clockwise and on to the Ayre road. But owing to my uncertainty I opted for the safer, if longer, walk west. Along the way I pass the How(i)e o' Backland, most likely a broch. Presently divided by a farm track there must have been only one field once as for the site we have the name 'enclosure of the broch' Quoyburing, which, or was, pronounced Quoyburrian (a Quoyburray is close to Round Howe in Tankerness). HY50SE 8 at HY58040402 is a 3m high mound covering a little over half-a-hectare even now, covering a broch and probably outbuildings. A Dr D Brothwell excavated an almost full height curving wall when digging a trial trench. There is only room for such at the west side as the east is lower and dips down to a pool, possibly modern. In the NW a portion of external ditch mentioned in the record can be made out by 'the eye of faith' and a little further west by a jagged little pool is a suspicious small bump. At Newark I made my way back to the main road, I think using that nice Oback road. If memory serves I reached New Lighthouse in time to catch that last bus back. Phew !

Labels: Blood Field, Bloody Quoy, burnt mound, cist, Delday, Greentoft, Howan, Howan Blo, Howe o'Backland, Koffer Howe, Malisburgh, Milldam, Millfield, Noltland, Quoyburing, RAF Deerness, Seatter, Steinflett, Warthill

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

WARBUSTER NORTH
There is much confusion over these tumuli remnants north of Skae Frue (the antiquarian's Skeldro, probably the true Orcadian name) on the map. What appear to be three reports in the NMRS are one. Captain F.W.L. Thomas in 1851 is the earliest note of them and isn't one of those. Several bowl-barrows in an era in on a moor north of that mound with a scatter of many lumps of cramp, some incorporated in the Warbuster hill-dyke. Petrie in September 1850 excavated one and found a crude hammerstone at the back of a small kist (P.S.A.S.VII).In 1928 RCAHMS came to call (Howan Wasbuster, RCAHMS reord no. HY21SE 40) but gave bad directions - fortunately they did tell us they were the ones on the map ! A group of 6/7 mounds all under 2½' high with large quantities of cramp. Special note was taken of one some 34 foot across having a few stones of decent size about its north margin with a NW/SE aligned 20"x18" cist near the centre in which the inspector found a bit of calcined bone. Next to it was a 21'D probably natural mound but then a similar sized mound to the first also with earthfast stones about the base [like Bookan Cairn HY21SE 19 had]. The latter had signs of excavation too, as had a fine-turf covered 25'D mound some 200~300m north. In the mid-1930's J.G. Callander saw them (HY21SE 4 at HY280145) but similarly muddled up the directions, referring to the Ring of Brodgar rather than the Ring of Bookan. He refers to the notable mound as having the stones of a cist cover visible at the top and covered by cramp. By 1966 the O.S. sees a total of seven mounds 4-10mD by 0.2-0.7m high which it correctly equates with those seen by Callander. At HY28031459 they found a mound without cist. The explanation would be that Callander mistook the cist base for a cover and these fragments were lost in the intervening decades. All of which leaves one anomaly. In 1964 the farmer at Howan had levelled the field adjacent to the north three years previously but still had a 5mD 0.7m high earthen mound (also HY21SE 40) to show the O.S. (at HY27921466), though this is most likely natural anyway.

Labels: Bookan, F.W.L. Thomas, George Petrie, Howan, J.G.Callander, Wasbister, Wasbuster