Orcadian landscapes

Only three for the Out and About today; the volunteer driver Patrick, me and the labradoodle Star. In St. Margaret's Hope we parked the minibus at Cromarty Square, went onto Shore Road and took the second road on our left, much steeper than School Road. Good way to build up to the walk, get the 'big hill' out of the way. First thing we come to is a set of tall walls roadside, with steps in between to take folk up to the level ground above and through step-topped gatepillars sans gate. Here is Bellevue, built in the last two decades of the 19th century. This angular two-storey house with blue-grey slates is the only one I've noticed in Orkney built of pale pastel red stone. More likely my memory let's me down. And mistakiing the house for Angle Cottage (which is by the site of St Margaret's Chapel) I thought the big walled enclosure it is part of was the school. Braehead behind is already on the 1st 25" map, though I think not much older. In the field on the other side of the road disturbed ground is all that is left of the the site of the Brough of Ontoft. Cresting the hill we looked down at Heatherum where a modern double path of modern flags shone in the sun, more striking than any open air art installation. Turning left here takes you swiftly to Widewall Bay. Nah, that won't do. Turn right past the fine farm of Grutha and go around the coast we shall. This is the way I came when I stayed at the Murray Arms. On this road to your right look down onto the farms of Lowertown and enjoy Scapa Flow and its islands spread before you. On the map Hunda seems small, but from here it took a while to identify it as the causeway is much longer than on photos I've seen and we were looking at Hunda broadside on - explains why the circular walk from the Burray village takes as long as it does ! Not long to reach the other side of Hoxa Hill. As we made our way down to the ayre we were much taken with the 'boathouse' at Mayfield (formerly the name of a dwelling back up the hill). This modern 'boathouse' is one of those modern conceits, a hoose made to resemble an upturned boat, but awfu' bonnie and rather large. The drystone wall divided seaside garden is pretty too. Somewhere hereabouts are believed to be the remains of an authentic boathouse, yer actual housing for boats. Next the shore this side of the Dam of Hoxa sits Longhouse farm range with its corn-drying kiln. Longhouse, Hoxa Mill originally, is now a residence. Something I only realised after I strayed onto the lawn to snap the kiln ! There is a track that takes you from the Dam of Hoxa over the old ayre to the Sand o'Wright. At this time, going by the overflowing pools either side, it struck us as maybe not the best route for now, might only get so far before being 'pushed' back. Tread the shore. Continue on to the road end at Howe. On the eminence above is the Howe of Hoxa. Which is a doubling as Hoxa is haugsheid referring to the broch. You can only see the top of the tower, and until you reach the spot it looks just a weird fieldwall. Then there you are with a topdown view. Which is a good thing, because the last time I went the interior had way too many tall nettles for one to venture in. From the broch a long mound heads doen the hill, and tradition states that Earl Thorfinn Hairsakljuf was hoy-laid here after his death in about A.D.960, However all archaeologists can say is that there are traces of settlement in the lower section. Passing by the broch I contented myself with a few shots from the road as I had used my SLR up close some time ago and we wanted to be back on time. Had my first glimpse of its small 'companion' by the shore, which will be a lot easier to resch than I had assumed. 115 paces/yards from the broch is the Little Howe of Hoxa, though it is possible the name is that of the mediaeval ruin rather than the (supposedly) prehistoric structure. In June 1871 George Petrie excavated this, and after he left Mr Gray of Roeberry (who had partialy dug the chambered mound on Warthill the previous year) continued to clear it out and (it was believed) make further exploration. Petrie found an approximately circular structure with two concentic wall enclosing a space of ~21'D. The 4' thick outer wall was seperated from the inner by a 2' high passage tapering from 18~20" below the covering stones to 16" wide at the base where it met bedrock at one place.. A 20' long passage and doorway went all the way through the structure, standing 4' high and being 2½' wide. Traditionally a passage connected with the Howe of Hoxa, but no trace found of this at the time or since. Presently the site is called a homestead and thought to be either early broch or pre-broch, but the finds made seem to me to be as likely from a Viking wirk or borg - perhap not a "green site" still. It is notable that none of the newspaper reports refer to it as a broch. There is a way in still, an archaeologist friend of mine entered the hole even though it is generally considered dangerous to do so. A wall post-dating the excavation goes across the homestead. Little Howe of Hoxa may simply be a name used to differentiate the ruined dwelling. There is a slip near Howe and a couple of derelict buildings mentioned on the NMRS, what appears to be a roofless croft and a small square building of just four walls. There are plenty of other early settlements in the area. Just back up the hill is Swart(e)quoy where excavations starting the same month found a probable earthen encampment suurounded by a strong rampart of earth and stone. Also at the same time some trenches made in a sandy knoll called Kirkiebrae on the other side of the isthmus found another 'encampment'. Though the name implies a church connection the finds don't bear witness to this, and the St Colm's dedication is a thoroughly modern fiction or the papers at the time would surely have said. One of the trenches turned up a fine red and yellow clay/pigment intermixed with ashes along with a huge number of bones from the same fauna as that at Little Howe. On a hearth of burnt stones one of the relics was a piecemeal bone comb held together by iron pins and having a central dot surrounded by small concentric rings. It stood comparison with examples from Hampshire and other English counties, bringing to my mind the recent theory that there had been Angles resident on Orkney in Pictish times. Situated close by where caravan park it doesn't look much to me, being more impressed by a mound in the elongated field triangle on the hillside. Wouldn't be the first time the slight repositioning of a boundary has put a site on a different side to that on maps, as happened to me with Brodgar's Fairy Well. A short road section goes across the hill, and here is the junction with the road to Head of Hoxa - carry on to this and eventually arrive at the Hoxa Tapestry gallery and then a fine reastaurant with glorious views (when the mists clear), beyond which a lovely nature walk takes you around the wartime camps and emplacements. Another time. Arriving back onto the main road the pillbox you can make out in the land between the shores has been moved from its original location, so possibly an alternative explanation for what I see in the field corner. East of the toilet block are several hut bases and foundations from a small camp used by REME. As we came by the farmer was dropping hay fodder on some for his sheep. Very well behaved they were, staying in the field even after he left the gate open to get more fodder. Not enough time to tread the Sand o'Wright, so off up to Roeberry. A couple of interesting buildings on the farm.The ends facing us had wide ornate multicolour stone block archways, one open the other blocked off. Patrick and I spotted a very small belfry on the roadside building and thought this to be an old church, no, no, schoolhouse. Then at the other end spotted a big external staircase. So most likely a storehouse, with that 'belfry' housing a pulley system for hauling goods up to the next floor. The first O.S. shows something peculiar, apparently where Roeberry Cottage is now. I like the cottage gateway, framed by softly curving walls. And way above Roeberry House are the sad remains of The Wart tomb. Now we were up the other side of Hoxa Hill overlooking the Oyce of Quindry. I wonder if it is a coincidence that tidal inlets attract Ba' games, but of course they provide (or occur in) big level patches of land e.g. Oyce of Quindry, the Ouse and the surviving Ba and the Ba ' Green of Orquil (probably the Ouse at Finstown and the head of Hamnavoe for Stromness too). Anyhoo, on the uphill side of the road a Nissen hut sits in complete isolation. Incredibly this is all that's left of Hillside Camp (ND49SW 33 in the region of ND435923) - some 500 men from the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery stayed at the accomodation camp. At the head of the Oyce of Quindry a road goes by the shore to Ronaldsvoe. Near the junction with the main road I spot another Nissen Hut, though even through binoculars this resembled a small cottage.with a chimney at each end. My next thought was that a wartime building had been turned into a dwelling, but further observation showed the structure had been covered in concrete like many an engine house. So I suspect it provided power for Hillside Camp. However, no matter how far I drill down on PASTMAP absolutely nothing is shown there, never mind a site pin !! Most curious. Of a sudden coming down the hill into the Hope headed for School Road, to the east is Stonepark. In the 19thC several cists were found in a mound at Stonepark [?ND444932 by a field bend], and in another fired stone and earth mound on the same farm of Blanster (near the farm buildings) a single cist held some ashes under an upturned urn. A little further down, somewhere near the playing fields on the other side of the road had been yet another small military camp, this one for the RASC with only a few hut foundations left to mark the endeavour. But the next thing to grab my attention is what I think is Angle Cottage, an L-shaped two-storey mansion house with crow-stepped gables. Though with a date of 1893 visible on a photo I take it that it has been re-modelled if so. When I wrote up this walk for the Blide Blether because I had mixed up the roads I had applied the name to Bellevue !! In 1866 at a spot 20~30 yards from the shore (that had been under cultivation for almost a century) men digging for office house foundations near the Established Church manse uncovered a skeleton 2-3' down, prior to which 5-6' of mound material had been already removed. I'm not sure whether this was U.P Church property as this is much further back, and all I can find on RCAHMS are several records for warehouses [offices is Orcadian for farm labourer accomodation at this time]. Another mystery. Patrick, Star and I got back in the minibus and returned to the Blide in order to be there at the alloted time, but the two humans agreed it would be a fine walk to extend into a full day by adding in a tour of the Head of Hoxa military sites. Petrie's excavations in local papers :- June 21st & 28th1871 "The Orkney Herald", June 24th & July 1st 1871 "The Orcadian". Swartiquoy, ND49SW 11 at ND431940 - lost site of tumulus with cist and urn. Enclosure almost definitely that down as Mayfield, ND49SW 91 at ND 43150 94238. The modern Mayfield farm's former name Swartiquioy, with East Swartiquoy near Kirmareth. Howe of Hoxa. ND49SW 1 at ND4252693962, mentions. Little Howe of Hoxa, ND49SW 2 at ND4243 9403 St Colm's Chapel / Kirkiebrae, ND49SW 8 at ND42229369. My own suspicions lie with the stuff in the field corner at ND42189371, rather than ouside, even so.

Labels: Bellevue, Blanster, Brough of Ontoft, Hillside Camp, Hoxa Mill, Kirkibrae, Little Howe of Hoxa, Mayfield, RASC, REME, Roeberry, St Colm's Chapel, St Margaret's Chapel, Stonepark, Swartiquoy

Another grand day in paradise as the Blide group of Out and About folk headed down to South Ronaldsay in a full minibus again, picking up a member in the south isles. The road to Hoxa we used starts in the centre of The Hope by the Smiddy museum which one member expressed an interest in seeing sometime (its actually attached to the bus waiting room, so even in the worst of weather those travelling by public transport have a no-brainer !). Along the way we passed the Oyce of Quindry, a tidal inlet where they used to play the Ba'. Arrived at the Sand o'Wright aka Sands of Wright. Even though it was only an hour off high tide the beach looked expansive, and at extra-wide I still had to take three shots with my camera to capture it all.between the headlands. Most of the group headed east to the high cliffs at the Roeberry Taing, where they looked like tiny dolls at their foot. I suspect another Groatie Buckie hunt took place, these cowries as emblematic of good luck as their Pacific cousins. A few of us headed over the other direction where a fine swell washed the shore my much lower cliffs (though still too high for those with an aversion to owt much above a man's height). There is meant to be a 'new' track along the low cliffs, but I couldn't make this out from the below. Along the way the sparkling swell sometimes caught me out! Some waves rose glassy green, elsewhere they alternated plain with foam as if designed so. After a while the main body came towards us and we three set off to meet them. Several stranded jellyfish littered the sand, as did a peedie still-living crab missing all legs but one - Kev took pity and threw it into the sea. Coming up off the beach I was intrigued by a long low mound set against the base of the hillside in the sharp corner of a field and covered liberally with stones. On top an area of sand has been exposed but still with some stone. At the mounds downhill side I thought lines of dark grass might show where walls had been, though I have since read in a Current Archaeology report of "buried ditches forming dark green lines during dry conditions". In June 1871 the sandy knoll called Kirkiebrae was trenched in several places to reveal a likely encampment, with burnt stones forming a hearth and containing a large number of animal bones. On the hearth was found a stone quern ("rubber"), a piece of deer bone and a broken fine toothed iron pin fastened bone comb with a set of concentric circles paralleled in southern England. At one spot a fine red and yellow substance was mixed up with a large quantity of ashes. None of which sounds ecclesiastical, but this is traditionally the site of a St Colm's Chapel established by Columba's disciple Cormac from Iona in the early seventh century (Ladykirk down at Burwick had the same dedication). It seems strange that this building has disappeared completely. Anyway the piece that had attracted my attention is not the one on record. Instead they have a hillock above the beach on the other side of the wall as it - ND49SE 4 at ND42229369 - though Kirk Geo is nearer my candidate. The owner of Roeberry Farm called Kirkie Brae a natural grassy knoll with sand exposed in the top from having been used in the wartime (an aerial photo indicates the putative machine-gun post faced the Dam of Hoxa, though it looks as much a broch to my eyes). The dimensions given are 2.5m high and roughly 17m NW/SE by some 13m on the other axis. It is described as having a modern wall about the north and east edges and at the top of the NE side what might be signs of a former building in an outer face of yard-long foot-high drystane walling. To the north is the Howe of Hoxa, a long sloping mound near the west end of the Dam of Hoxa with an elevation at the high point hiding the broch just behind the house. Climb all the way up and you see into the broch from top to bottom as put back together by George Petrie after he excavated it. Many years ago since I have been there. Then the interior was full of nettles, and global warming will have made matters worse since. Definitely view from the top. Traditionally the earl Thorfinn Skullsplitter lies buried in Hoxa, with the mound being identified as the spot. But archaeologists can only find indications of settlement at the lower end. However near the east end of the Dam of Hoxa an empty long cist came to light in the vicinity of Swart(e)quoy/Swartiquoy, and early Christians were wont to re-bury their pagan ancestors. Waters are a little muddied by a reference to the discovery of graves, plural, outside the enclosure excavated in 1871 as no remains are mentioned in connection with the cist (ND49SW 11 at ND43099413). This NNE/SSW aligned cist, came from 2'8" deep inside a mound and mostly formed from slabs. At a distance of 4'6" from it another slab stood parallel to the east side's south end slab, both of which rose to a foot above the mound, and he found a 12" by 9½" whalebone vessel. A strange layout it seems to me. Anyways, Petrie believed the Swartquoy enclosure had been "an earthen encampment" because of its being within a strong rampart of earth and stone. This is undoubtedly the same site as Mayfield (ND49SW 13 at ND 43079416), though as described it may include the cist location too - in 1973 the OS talks of a D ~45m in diameter whereas in 1997 Moore and Wilson give us a sub-circular enclosure 'only' 30m across. But more easily reconcileable as area blocked off by the feature's two semi-circular ramparts though. The inner rampart is the better surviving at a maximum height of 1.3m, especially at the north side where it is 5m across (but 1997 account gives bank dimensions as 1.5m high but only 3m wide). At the widest point of the inner rampart a probable eastern entrance (NE in 1997 account) is indicated by two earthfast slabs 0.8m apart. The outer rampart isn't so obvious, and even then can only be seen in the NE quarter and some of the SE quarter. A 0.6m deep ditch across the middle of the enclosure had been some 2~2.5m wide. The enclosure's western end barely survives but is likely to have extended to where you can now see a boat shed's ruined foundations as rubble and peaty deposits lie in a 2m wide vertical cut at the cliffs. Must go there sometime. Back on firmer ground, and after taking photos of my candidate for the kirk I realise we would not be going any further. Beyond the toilet block are the large foundations of a wartime camp (the pillbox elsewhere is not in its original position, by the way). Running slowly ahead I think I have spotted the other end of the trail I would have taken them on, except you'd have to negotiate a field-gate. Once back onboard the minibus I persuaded our leader to go to W. Hourston's smithy museum, as sufficient time remained to do so. In the event a different member came with me to the smithy - the rest went to see a craftshop (where for once Sheena garnered no wool!). Hourston's smithy is in a long low building with the old forge in the central section. Go through to the right and there is a large collection of black-and-white photos. The bus waiting-room is seperate. Its wall is a round sweep at the corner of the road, preserving the original curve made to accomodate horse-driven vehicles. At the back a further, lower, building abuts the central section, continuing the roof line. Alas the garden behind has its gate roped up now because it was bonnie when I went. Entering the middle section there's the forge on your right and a selection of instruments in front of you and overhead. Most obvious are two hand-driven pedestal tools, a drill and a lathe operated by turning a wheel. In the low room behind the forge I saw a large thin-rimmed metal wheel and a pneumatic bellows operated by a long handle. As I came out of this room the lady in charge showed me a big bellows you work by hand to light an imitation fire on top of the forge, which felt satisfying to operate. Seeing the room full of antique photographs attracted my attention but didn't spike it this particular day. On leaving I had time to walk towards the Doctors Road, which I remembered fondly from a previous visit (from before all these new roads). Up from the museum above the other side of the road the stone walls of an old (?abandoned) building drew me to it. Small stone slabs making up the roof, with two peedie window-holes, and a knock-down imitation of crow-stepped gables. At the front the stones had more honeyed tones and I saw the usual slop-roofed abutting shed that goes with such Early Modern homes. The doctors hoose, Bankburn, sits at the end of its road and is a small late.mansion house with square gate pillars topped by stepped pyramids of more stone blocks. Directly before Bankburn I took a turn up a footpath running outside the walls. Here along the path I chanced upon a long patch of bonnie pale purple/pink flowers, a member of the Dead Nettle family with toothed lanceolate leaves held on a tall stem. Possibly a garden escape but very we;lcome scattered there.The path ends in what I would have thought could be a small dump except for the 'cabin' there. Could have walked over to the new road if I hadn't born in mind my propensity for a wander too far ! Going back a graceful grey-and-white pusser sat in the road, watching. She had a lovely face, so I took a few photos. As I neared she finally departed without so much as a peep. Back in the centre again there were a couple of members already back at the Blide bus. No-one else yet, so I went to the sea-front to look at an old slipway, the central portion is built using edgeset slabs just like you see in some of the cathedral arches in the upper section. Its quite a common technique in Orkney and seems to have been used for a long time for various structures - the top of the old Toy Ness pier in Orphir is made in the same way. By what used to be a damn fine place to eat (now up for sale) there is the eye-catching sweep of a row of traditional shorefront houses, now let down by the brash white of the new buildings at the far end. Finally the others came back from a cafe - lucky beggars, I didn't even get into the nearby shop for a look-see - and we were off backski.

Labels: Ba', Hourston's smithy museum, Howe of Hoxa, Kirki Brae, Kirkibrae, Mayfield, Oyce of Quindry, Smiddy museum, St Colm's Chapel, St Margaret's Hope, Swartequoy, Thorfinn Skullsplitter