Orcadian landscapes

EVIE Set off from Orkney Blide Trust on the minibus on a lovely bright day. Arrived at Tingwall, that is thing-völlr 'thing-field'. The long mound has two peaks, the first the top of the broch that was used as the assembly place (with stonework exposed in various places top to base) and the second where a mill once stood. Walking between the houses the millstream ends in a culvert beneath a high drystane wall bridging the banks. There are various ruined buildings. At the cliff edge one of these is an old boathouse, just about distinguishable from the rest. Since this visit one of the other buildings has been renovated and dolled up as Betty's Reading Room, with an old mangle and a large mounted grinding-wheel outside. This was done by locals after the sudden death of Betty, and to commemorate her there are masses of shelves full of books - something to do whilst waiting for transport. Looking to my right towards Banks a shadowed heron could be made out on the shore in the distance. As the ferry left Tingwall I trained my binoculars on the mounds between Tingwall and Woodwick. The Knowe of Midgarth settlement (HY32SE 6 at HY39812361) is comprised of two sites - a long hillock that is a chambered mound (though thought by some to be a variation on a souterrain) adjacent to a circular mound. From the ferry at high magnification the disparity is plain to see, even clearer than from the farmroad to Tingwall. Previously I have seen similarities with the Howe of Hoxa, where a broch sits on the far end of a long mound (traditionally a Viking burial site), but if it isn't a settlement might it not be like the Head of Work where a circular cairn has been plonked on a long cairn later ?? The cairns are right at the edge of the low cliffs and from the ferry the material of the long cairn clearly extends down to the cliff base (or at least sea-level on the day). BRINIAN On arrival the first business of the day was a delivery of leaflets to the Rousay surgery, heading east and then down a steep short road to Brinian House. A fine two-storey house with pale lemon limewash walls below two pitched roofs (or a bayed roof). At least that is how the walls looked from the sea, where it resembles a rather tall kirk of the ordinary kind with a peedie pitch roofed portico centrally placed. There is an actual kirk close at hand. In fact there are two kirks, one no longer in use only a stone's throw away. You would think that the active kirk is the older one going by the arched windows but you can see from the tops that these are set into a rectangular space. Both are of the late kind, no great age to them, both with those [what I would call] porticos facing the sea [session houses ??] but with chimneys. The slightly older one has the graveyard behind it. This kirk took over the duties of the Swandro kirk when St Mary's Church became abandoned in 1815. Our first real stop is Trumland House. From May to September all of the grounds and gardens can be seen by the public, and part of the buildings. Near the entrance is an information point where you also pay for admittance, though this is unmanned and you pay how much you want to. The vista is magnificent, with a magnificent sweep of road taking you round to the grand mansion house. It is half-hidden by trees from here and there is a small woodland/copse right of the road, eventually giving way to heath and gorse at the edge of Green Hill. The next point of interest is the boundary wall, with a gateway sans gate. The gatepillars are square and of mortared stone. They are topped with concrete capped tall pyramids, the whole distinctly out of proportion. To the left is a devil's gate, three staggered slabs set into the wall. Raising your eyes there is a tomb under Historic Scotland's care on the horizon. In May 1898 workmen digging out a mound on Flag-Staff Hill, 300 yards west of Trumbland (sic) House, to make a summer seat found a 'vault' with bones etcetera (said to be similar to to a discovery near Hunclett farm described as unexcavated at the time, more than likely the Knowe of Hunclett). When the circle was almost done they came upon a well-finished wall and thin edgeset stones where the remains were found under a stone at the foot of one of these slabs along with rough pottery. Two more small 'kists' were found before they made the major discovery of the main body of the tomb under a 10" thick fallen lintel. This split-level tomb is now called Taversoe Tuick (HY42NW 2 at HY42572761). It dates to 2130~1740 BC. In the early 1990s the mid-morning sun was observed coming along the passage to the lower chamber on December 18th. Trevor Garnham thinks there may be an alignment involving the lower passage viz. burial cairn at top of Gairsay (HY42SW 15 at HY44112233) > the passage at HY42572761 > Holm of Huip cairn (HY63SW 4 at HY62823116) > Eday Church cairn (HY53SE 5 at HY56043344). At the house the first thing you see is a small museum and picture gallery attached to the side of the main building. Light and airy. What I love is the agricultural machinery, most especially the wood and metal wonder that is the ~1880 combined corn and seed-dressing machine. Actually, the first thing to greet us is the family pet, a white and light tan hound. The house has been given crow-stepped ends to the end of almost every roof. Its front is chock full of big bright windows. Of note are a bay window at ground level and two pedimented windows on the first floor on the left and on the right a narrow corner window with a curved projection a little distance above. The cluster of small buildings already mentioned make for a more cluttered east side, these entered by an 'archway' pointed on top but ogival beneath. Compared to the front the back of the house is not so imposing. Appearances deceive me as this is really the front of the house with a studded wooden door held by massive black hinges which sits inside a round arched decorative stone doorway edged with a rope effect. In an horizontal cartouche above this sits the original owner's initials in monogram form, the date 1873 and other letters. A steeped line, part of a horizontal stone one going across the whole face of the house, sits over it. Touching the top of that is the bottom of a window, and I have only just spotted that above the window is a vertical stone cartouche about the same size, with what appears to be a shield inside (sadly eroding). Centrally place in a large space on the right-hand side is the piece-de-resistance, a much larger stone cartouche containing Burrough's coat-of-arms with flourishes and a rectangular plaque with his medals in stone form. The west end is the east sans additions. Now I can see another of those corner windows, except at the actual corner of the house, and the 'cornice' above. Still cannot divine a purpose for that - all that I am reminded of is the same feature at e.g. the Clay Loan end of Victoria Street and Neukatineuks in Kirkwall, but those are (they say) designed for carriages to pass safely round and are at ground level, not two floors up !! Later, on leaving the natural wonderland behind and coming back round to the south side of the house, re-reading my photos taken from the north elucidates my former error as to the mansion house's orientation. What I like about this place is the almost unadulterated symmetry of it, not being a hostage to sterile balance. It certainly looks like the house only went as far as the two corner windows. But even within that the left is dominated by the two-storey bay window with two narrow windows below two triangles the same width topped by roses whilst the right is dominated by a twin-peaked crow-stepped roof that does not touch the upper windows. The right-hand side is what ordinarily would be a main entrance slap-bang centre. Two sets of stone steps lead from the stone path around the chief lawn up to the centre of its facade only to bring you up abruptly at the window - no sign a door had ever been intended even ! Of course the lower steps do take you to a similar path across in front of the house as if on a gallery with views down. Back to the day, and from the gallery we started for the gardens. Entry is under an arch set on pillars, the whole made from red sandstone now parti-coloured with pale lichen. Around Trumland House there are many items constructed from old ruins re-used. Whether this piece has been gathered together from scattered parts or is a (literally) monumental objet trouve I cannot tell. What first came to mind is the mediaeval St Olaf gateway sitting seulement in Kirkwall (transposed from its original setting). Yet it is nothing like, as I realised when I came back home. Oddly enough the remains of the Swandro kirk are amongst those used about the place. Secondly the arch struck me as a realisation of a whale's rib in stone. Nice curves carved along it. A few of the top stones supporting it are moulded and some with have horizontal grooves that may instead might be löwenkratzen 'lion-scratchings' similar to those att St Magnus Cathedral and at St Nicholas Chapel in Holm (kirk stone as medical treatment). There are some huge gunnera inside and a woolly-leaved plant with a gorgeous long lamb's-tail spike, flowers I assume. Another leguminous plant on steroids has rings of yellow flower at intervals up the stem. Then there's an IIRC shorter plant with pink flowers apparently composed only of overgrown pink stamens with no petals looking like a motion-stop photo of milk splashing up. Opposite the orchard where a lone gardener is working black-and-yellow liveried insects coat the flowers in a border. Amongst them are more hornets than I have ever seen, so busy that I can only mage to snap one breaking into the top of what I take to be an ornamental thistle's closed apical bud. The air hums. From here we move on to Burnside Walk to walk amidst and under shading trees. I now know that the path to Taversoe Tuick trails out of this woodland. Oh I would want to spend hours here with the dryades and naides inspiring me. One enticing spot is a shady pool. The furthest away sides have rocky faces and a streamlet trickles over in the corner, watering micro plants as it flows down them. At another more open place a wooden footbridge passes over the burn. This is comparatively modern I'm sure. It is a light brown symphony of diamond trellis and spiky posts. There are straight and smoothly curved top rails to trail the fingers behind you. This is quite a mature copse for a 'modern' creation, with long bare branches creating patterns below the sun-searching leaves. All too soon for me the time comes when our party must peradventure to pastures new - though I do take time out on my way back to join the rest to see the final side of the garden. WASBISTER Everyone gathered up again we returned whence we came and made a weodorshins circuit of the island, round below Cubbie Roo's Burden up into Sourin and the (slightly) lower slopes of Faraclett Head, then down the long steady incline of Leeon to the east end of Saviskaill Bay. We then turned down by the east side of the Loch of Wasbister for our next stop lay on the low cliffs east of Saviskaill farm. By the fieldwall are several single-storey ruins. These are the Saviskaill structures (HY43SW 40 at HY40123340) about which the NMRS relates that on the 1st 6" map attached to the wall are 3 roofless structures but only one on the 1977 1:10,000. Really they are both right, as you can tell not only from the first 25" map but also by drilling down through RCAHMS own CANMAP ! In fact there may be another shown yet or the three includes this. At present it is a bit of a jumble. The definite single structure's doorway faces the end of the road. It looks fairly obvious that though they appear seperate stuctures the three are actually compartments, as it were, of one long continuous building. I think this started off with the central piece as this has the curving walls you normally associate with Orkney's late Viking / early Mediaeval period. This would probably go well with the Saviskaill settlement (HY43SW 24 from HY40153342 to 40133358). That the head of this shingle bay is called Nousty Sand, indicating a number of nausts for drawing boats up into, makes me hazard that this used to be a hope 'sheltered bay'. Leaving the others to their repast I walked along the clifftop with a stupendous view of Faraclett Head looming up in the distance. After the sands come the hard rocks of the Riff of Wasbister. At the sea's edge large boulders shone white in the sun. These showed themselves to be seals basking in a line on the edge of a finger pointing into the waters.. It is the same on the Loch of Stenness where near the Stones of Stenness circle, where the distinction between seal and rock is so blurred visually that those not in the know will insist against you that one is the other unless movement visibly happens ! In getting a little closer I wandered over rocky plates amid pools left behind by the tide. Turning back I walked the shore the rest of the way back to rejoin the others. Where the minibus stood there is a jumble of rocks and slabs that seemed like archaeology to me. I did put it down to modern JCB activity, only realising weeks later that this must be one of the places where the Saviskaill settlement shows in the low shore banks even if it doesn't appear to be on NMRS record no. HY43SW 24 (from HY40153342 to 40133358), tentatively assigned to Norse times too. Mr Yorston of Trumland Cottage first brought it to the attention of officialdom. In 1972 Ordnance Survey noted drystane walling traces under present-day structures, along with some kitchen midden material. Came 1979 and high under the banks of the farm buildings some more walling had [?become] exposed, this time made up of very large beach stones (bringing to my mind the Lamb Holm settlement, now [IIRC] swept away). In the same year both these remains and the drystane walling are briefly described again, but with the additional info that the latter lay exposed for 28m - not sure if that stretches to the piece I saw [and I'm crap judging distances] but the SMR reports the former at the shingly bay's southern end with the farm itself on the north end ! Saviskaill 'sea-Hall' itself is a large complex of big farm buildings shining a golden yellow because the farm is almost entirely covered by lichen. It seems abandoned, or at least uninhabited, but is the kind o' place you could see being an attraction or mebbe a museum if someone threw a ton o' money at it ! Part of it at least has been a mill at one point (the one building with no lichen) because there is a sluice shown on a large-scale map by the wall nearest to me and I can see a rusty millwheel resting against the wall, a frame that I think is a bucket-type wheel (there is another such leaning against a building on the south side of the Lyde Road near Stenso). It is just such a magnificent place I would surely go into raptures if left to peruse up close for any length of time. And again a monument with no monument record as with that mansion house on Damsay. A visit to the Orkney Room comes up with no new information. Returning to the party most of them decided to take a look for themselves, and I decided I would try and see if I could complete the foursquare circuit of road around the Loch of Wasbister 'loch-farm' before they finished and decided to move on. So I set off along the eastern side. About half-way along this side of the square-ish road surrounding the loch a tongue of land points into the water. The gently mounded promontory is called Bretta Ness, by tradition the site of a kirk - the 1880 Name Book says the stones from it were removed to the loch margins. It is almost completely artificial (though this is under dispute) but to my mind the rises in water levels make it unlikely to have been an isolated crannog as the neck would have been even more prominent in prehistory. A now underwater dump of stone is overlain by a masonry platform and then the whole covered by a mound 1.7m in height and ~30mD. This site has been used since at least Pictish times, possibly metalworking from what I've read (I'm minded on the Knowe of Verron in Sandwick). Exploratory digs found an E/W line of wall-footings with building rubble and lime plaster that could be taken for chapel remains. Over at the W end the site's first use may be signified by thick circular walls (aerial photography has also revealed a weed-covered feature in the loch west of Bretta Ness). Then there were what sound like beehive cells,. Subsequent buildings left very scant remains because of frequent robbing, but due to later re-use as part of a kiln setup a flagged floor and walls built into the earlier rubble did survive. Out in the water near the far side is what is thought to be a crannog (a large artificial island settlement), The Burrian, though the 1880 Namebook confusingly also gives this as the loch's chapel site, with finds of deer remains and coins and reference to possible earlier building. In 1912 "The Orcadian" tells us that this site (HY33SE 13 at HY39493338) was still connected to the west shoreline by the remains of a bridge (then a foot underwater) with a fault half-way. Later underwater features were observed where it met the shore but these are apparently buried now. A 1972 report tells us that the stepping stones start midway along the north-west side of a ?modern wall on the island and continued visibly in that direction for some thirty metres. This wall running around the island is sub-divided into two unequal enclosures, but salmonberry hides any internal remains there might be. There may be traces of sections of an earlier wall a metre or two outside this, and just above the waterline walling has been noted. The combination of an island, The Burrian, and a promontory, Bretta Ness, is highly reminiscent of the Loch of Wasdale in Firth where these features were seen as a kirk and its burial ground [the latter also shown on some earlier maps as an island]. A little futher along the loch meets the road. On the other side of the road here a 'drain' in an E/W aligned earthwork strikes off. Near where this ends at a field boundary there is a well/wellspring immediately south and a burnt mound no much further along but immediately to the north. The latter is called Everhaud (HY43SW 3 at HY40203310). This conical mound, also aligned E/W, is some fourteen metres by twelve metres and stands to a height of 1.1m. Projecting the line of the 'drain' brings you to the traditional site of St. Colm's Kirk (HY43SW 10 at HY40553307), by the shore near the NE corner of a field bearing the number 33 on the 1:25,000 map. All that can now be seen of this is a low rise on the shoreline beneath rubble placed to combat erosion, hiding the ?paving slabs and edgeset stones still visible as recently as 1972. One cannot but wonder if the worshipper left this kirk following the E/W line until they came to the Loch of Wasbister before finally taking a boat to The Burrian. Looking over to my left above the Loch of Wasbister there is a large graveyard (now with an extension) that in 1880 was still attached to the ruins of Corse Kirk (HY33SE 14 3948 3361), all traces of which are now gone. Left again, by the main road, is the old Cogar school. North of this there is (though I didn't see it myself) on the south shore modern dumping over an irregular shaped rise covered in vegetation called The Bleaching Knowe (HY33SE 6 at HY39573316). Already in 1935 little remained of the 'burnt mound' apart from edge-set slabs in box arrangements at the water's edge. In 1972 there was little left of even these structures, and ten years later these too were out of sight. I phrase it thus because it is possible these still survive buried by trash or submerged by further loch encroachment. Second leg of the road is the main road. Not enough time to check the knowe for myself, so I forged ahead in my bid to return to the party by the sea. Above this southern side of the road there is an old complex of farm buildings alongside the burn like a much reduced stature Saviskaill but without the lichen. I am especially taken by a long building, one half slightly taller than the other, with the two roofs formed purely from long flags (in an unusually good state for their age). This is Quoys. I had hoped to visit the graveyard just in case there is still something that relates to Corse Kirk (archaeologists can get 'hung up' on searching too tightly in a set locality). Before I could turn the next corner the Blide bus came haring along. Reluctantly I hopped aboard and we set off on the last part of our circuit of Rousay, heading off around the Mansemass and Ward Hills into Westness. STANDING STONES Rushing like the wind we left a line of houses bordering the road and I only just had time to glimpse of the Long Stone (Frotoft) above the road. I know that the Langsteen (HY42NW 7 at HY 40412750) is described as close to the road but it's real close ! At some time it lay broken (or ? had been deliberately smashed like the Stone Of Odin in Stenness) but has since been 'fixed'. And so the height of this NW/SE aligned stone can only be given as nearly 7'6". Also it may be one of those where the ground is eroding or building up about the setting. There it is 2'6" broad and a foot thick, reducing a little to under two foot at the top. There is a bit of a hollow five foot up and this is likely to have been seen as a giant's fingerprint, which makes it the Cubbierow/ Kubbie Row's Stone/ Cubbie Roo's Stone thrown from Fitty Hill in Westray to Lyra. Other such on Rousay are the Clet of Westness (according to the 1884 "Anderson's Guide to Orkney" above "the little water" - Peerie Water I assume), about which I can find no more, and Finger Steen or Byasteen (which is [or was] on a cliff near Wasbister shore). Which standing stones we officially remember, and identify as such, and which we 'lose' sometimes seems potluck. BLACKHAMMER Our final stopping point before journey's end on Rousay at the roadside took us to where we went a little uphill to the Blackhammer tomb (HY42NW 3 at HY41422761), named for a farm that once stood on the terrace above - the steading can be easily made out from the air but has not survived as well (though on the ground my eyes could still trace where it once stood). It is highly likely that the farm buildings were where material from the upper part of the cairn went. Prior to excavation the chambered mound itself (a grass and heather covered oblong 78'x34'x5') had been thought merely the ruins of another peedie farmhouse. Eventually the stone cairn stood revealed as a sub-rectangle with sides incurving a little, aligned NW/SE and measuring 72'6" by 27' at its broadest. The eastern end still stood above ground to 1'8" the western end from 2' to 2'3, the northern side mostly 1'6" high (though falling to 6" at a point near the eastern end) and the southern side 2' to 2'6" rising to 3'6" by the west end. Its outer wall's foundation course formed a plinth like that of the Knowe of Yarso a kilometre west of here. For the first time antiquarians found walls fashioned to look like Unstan ware decoration, with sides built of slabs face down obliquely and set alternately slanting left-right and right-left to form hatched triangles. For the second time on Rousay they found a tomb's mouth deliberately closed, in this case blocked by well-built masonry whose outer face was flush with the cairn's outer wall. Animal bones were found throughout the debris inside the tomb, mostly with signs of burning. In the upper levels This included not only sheep, cattle and deer but also the remains of pink-footed geese and cormorant. Much of the bone lay in the first cell. In the bottom layer the birds were gannet, perhaps indicating a different season. Two very fragmented men's skeletons were found at the lowest level along with most of a carinated bowl and a splintered leaf-shaped flint knife burnt white, with only the upper face dressed. Low says one skeleton came from the passage and the other from the compartment furthest west. In cells 1 and 3 at the lowest level two scrapers and five flint splinters were found. One of the scrapers and a partly-worked splinter came from behind the walling sealing the entrance passage mouth under a step. At this same level a foot from cell 1's SW corner a fine-grained grey-green polished stone axe came to light, sealed by animal bones above and below it. Sometime after the tomb was built two large chucks of masonry were placed inside for purposes unknown. One stands in the angle between the 2nd-3rd stall partition and the chamber's north wall. The second, much cruder in appearance, makes an ogee across the chamber and starts in the south wall a little to the west of the entrance. Some folk object to the concrete capping given in 1955 to protect the tomb - perhaps we should shroud the inside with moss and lichen ;-) Really unless you filled the remains in and so kept everyone out this is the kind of compromise one has to come to. Nowadays the way into the tomb is topside, uphill, but at the front is a window that allows you to see down onto the original original [sic] entrance. Except today the sun shone straight down and all was glare. Or perhaps if I had been given a little more time… On the coast below is the Knowe of Hunclett, HY42NW 15 at HY41442722. This site or its predecessor would, I imagine, lay strong claim to being the settlement that went with the tomb. This is a ten-foot high turf-covered broch mound, apparently excavated (slight depression on summit), with extensive outbuildings to the south showing as many areas of exposed stonework. Thirty metres from the tower there is a shingle beach rather than the usual rocky Rousay shore, with further archaeology in the shore banks themselves . A rough, unploughable section of the next field west continues the five-foot high broad platform on which the broch sits. An exposed inner broch wall-section a yard long and a foot high has been extrapolated to give a diameter of 30-33' (with walls at least 10-12' thick) and its platform extends about two-hundred feet from the fieldwall. The whole broch is bounded at the west by a curving ditch 3-4m wide by 2.2m deep, on whose inner lip a possible fortification is indicated by a stone wall. And an outer wall can be read from more stonework west of the ditch itself. BRINIAN 2 Coming back to the pier I had a pootle around and the others whiled away their time outside the tearoom with refreshments. In the small harbour were two catamarans, a peedie one and a muckle one, comparatively speaking that is ! Side by side I believe they belonged to the same person. The Speedbird was large, white and modern, with a proper size cabin. Its yellow companion directly alongside looked more the original type i.e. twa small boats lashed together and definitely unpowered. I enjoyed the view over to Trumland Home Farm as I wandered over to the small museum, a cosy intimate place with enough to whet the appetite. Home Farm is a jumble of styles. With buildings of contrasting form it is as if someone had had the same idea as the fella who cobbled together the Hall of Tankerness but used a much later starting period for his design. The latest, and tallest, bit feels vaguely like a castle and also puts me in mind of an Italian hillside. Quaint. Soon enough the ferry came. On board and looking back towards Brinian Kirk my eye was caught again by Ivy Cottage to the right, a bonnie wee hoose dating back to1878 and minding me on a country cottage plonked on a hillside. There's a garden with lines of low 'bushes' and a low drystane wall. The central wooden door is a faded green, pale anyway, with a split window above the same and then the inscribed date on a shallow arched stone. It has been very sympathetically updated with small symmetrical skylights and below them twa narrow door-height windows. OTHER ISLANDS IN VIEW Took a few shots of Egilsay at maximum telephoto (520mm equivalent). Amazing how knobbly the hill's skyline looks, as if peppered with cairns or mounds. Time for a final view of Wyre. North of the pier, over at Rus Ness, there are what appear to be drystane seawalls. In a ?broken' section there are much heftier stones at the base and loose ones in an exposure behind. If they were part of structures they are definitely un-mortared. Part is now used for sewage discharge with a couple of large stone-lined tanks behind on the cliff-top. At the top of the island you can just make out the dark shape of Cubbie Roo's Castle and its surrounding banks. Though this had been built for the Viking called Kolbein Hruga the author Gregor Lamb has shown that the giant Cubbie Roo /Cuppierow must have been before the 12thC chieftain i.e. the giant assimilated the man, the Wyre man did not beget the Orkney-wide tales. As the ship passes the Bay of Whelkmulli (surely a cognate of Waulkmill Bay in Orphir - waulkr 'fuller of cloth', with Walkerhouses in both Evie and Birsay) there are no Wyre Skerries above water for the seals now as there were on the forward leg. EVIE AGAIN Trained my binoculars on the Evie coastline, around to Eynhallow [which I usually confuse with Egilsay !] and then Rousay, and took photos in a sequence in the hope that I would see more sites popping out, and idenifiably so, when I returned home. From the ferry looking north of the Woodwick woods the remains of the Ness of Woodwick broch in Evie (NMRS record no. HY42SW 9 at HY40072487) loomed large in my binoculars. Hedges notes that the rocky outcrops and sand below would be a good place to haul up a boat. This site is between the Loch of Vastray, a freshwater lochan, and the Rendall-Evie parish boundary at Woodwick's sea inlet. Though the site is called the Ness of Woodwick, after the headland, this is very obviously the Craig of Ritten. The 'crag' is an impressive mound with dimensions estimated as 50-60 feet with an inner diameter about half that - in 1946 at the seaward side to the NE about 20' of outer wall (thought to be the outer wall-face) could be observed. No midden was seen. Twenty years later most of this outer wall was overgrown like the rest of the mound. On a wider view there are two stone-walled enclosures running south of the mound that feel old, though post-broch they are in the right situation to replace outbuildings if this were a broch settlement like Gurness. I wonder if ritten could possibly be an error for pitten to give us a name Pict's Crag but a ret is an enclosure used during sheep-shearing and fits those enclosures equally well (Vikings are fond of giving placenames a double meaning too). An aerial Google image shows the broch's outer wall and others besides equally plainly.

Labels: Blackhammer, Bleaching Knowe, Bretta Ness, Brinian, Corse Kirk, Hunclett, Knowe of Midgarth, Ness of Woodwick, Savaskaill, Saviskaill, St Colm’s, Taversoe Tuick, The Burrian, Trumland, Wasbister

TINGWALL-WOODWICK November 16th 2010

This time around I took the bus all the way to Tingwall. It was a brilliantly sunny day, clear as far as the eye could see - going around the Gorseness Road a few days before I'd meant to take a lot of views of Gairsay but rain and dark clouds hunkered down over the island practically the whole time. I saw a heron some way south of the pier and later the same or another just to the north. Noticed that below the farm buildings a stone hut is built back into the cliff, putting me in mind of another behind the Mid Taing fishing pier in St Ola. Decided I might as well shoot the whole of the space before me and so went out onto the pier. Took in everything from the far end of Gairsay through Rousay and up over to Evie, only stopping short of the farm buildings. Spent an hour stood there doing consecutive sweeps of the horizon with camcorder, digital camera and SLR. Time now for the main event, the Thing itself. As I turned towards the farm a raven came down on a house wall and another sat on a line, however my attempt at a shot failed miserably (which is why SLR is preferable, none of that wait for a digital camera to fire up and than the high beep to surprise the birds away before you snap).

The Tingwall mound is in the form of a figure-of-eight or else two mounds of disparate sizes have been joined together, the larger and more mutilated at the west end and the smaller at the east by the farm. Using the 1st O.S. to look at the brochs from Dishero to Burgar you find the broch depicted as not quite circular but the east end of this mound has a geometric circle. Which seemed strange. Afterwards I had reason to ponder whether the sluice behind had been made using stones from the broch and the light went on - the sluice makes the burn behind a millstream and so this is a strong candidate for being a mill mound. Which isn't to say that it had no prior use [unless the mound had been constructed specifically for the mill]. The early map isn't as detailed as that for Dishero, showing a bank occupying the inside of the west circle's western half and orthostats on the south periphery (seven shown). On a modern-day aerial view [192.com IIRC] this is generally confirmed, with little appearing at the east quadrant and the stones part of the plant-covered ditch obscuring it from a roadside view. The view from above shows the large irregular pit seen roadside as coming from the south edge of the circle, a little right of centre, up to the broch tower marks with a small circle where it contacts. There are several pits inside the broch tower area. These are probably from antiquarian investigations. To my mind these would post-date the 1880 survey or more detail would be shown on the 1st O.S. (like Dishero). The photo shows a circular ditch on the west side and inside this the broch tower wall in the W-N quadrant with what appears to be an out-turning at the north end, perhaps a gateway or the east side of an external cell. I imagine the ditch to be is connected to the substantial rampart fragment referred to in the NMRS. Virtually nothing can be seen at the east side of the broch circle over or from there to the mill-mound [though if the mill is east of the mound I would settle for a corn kiln instead].

All of the foregoing I learned after this particular visit. Not knowing whether I would find myself able to access the site I decided to skirt it roadside and use the long zoom to see where I might not have a chance to. Coming from the harbour I first came to the eastern end by pressing up the ground by the east fieldwall.. Looked across this end from the east it is the south side that has been touched by man, at the base on the left what appears to be a low bank across this end, then an apparently manufactured curve to the top and an equally low rise or foundation from whose north side the mound slopes gradually down seemingly naturally. To the right of the 'foundation' you can see the top of the broch in the distance. Along the side facing the road a few stones of different sizes are exposed, though truth to tell if they have a pattern it is a line rather than a curve. Even in winter the gouge of a ditch cutting in front of the west end and up into this end of the mound like a stairway to heaven is heavily fringed with dock. Exposed in the cut above are a mix of small thin slabs and blocks. All are still where placed by man, but only in one spot are you priveleged to see a tiny section of plain to see walling. This horizontal block with a slab coming onto it I had previously believed to be part of a small passage entrance but later close inspection reveals a vertical surface behind and below the slab, probably one block and part of another - it feels different from the rest and I would like to think this is the outer face of the broch tower wall. Whilst I slowly worked along the Curator of Social History passed by me both ways - good to see some landowners report suspicious persons at sites.

Up at the crossroads the west end presents the multiple levels now familiar from Dishero. The metal gate in the west fieldwall is kept closed by a simple rope knot. However I am no good at knots and so followed the accepted paractice of climbing carefully over the hinged end. After entering the field I am about halfway to the mound when to my surprise I see a deep ditch cut into the ground by this end just beyond a sharp bend in the burn, and the broch sits on the other side. Up on the mound the bank/s on this end are easier to see. From the top it is more obvious how regular the east end is and there may be another bank between. Spot another interesting thing to my left as I look past a pit to the mound (or top of the mound)'s edge, a broad but very shallow concave curve and what might be slight bumps at either end. Could this be an entranceway ? And if so to the broch or something else ?? I was also surprised by how far back the big 'hole' at the south side was from the central broch tump. Beneath the plants at the bottom are some larger stones/slabs. Not sure if these are in situ or whether part of flooring if so. On the west side are fewer stones but there is that 'wall'. On the east side there is more of a continuity though after several metres it does broaden out suddenly, might be another chamber or whatever. Further down near the lip of the 'hole' on this side is something definitely different, a saw-edged orthostat (just visible from the road with magnification) with its face towards me. More like a tomb than broch - though it is considered that this is not a 'greenfield site', however the arrow is considered to run forward to Viking times rather from the IA back. Lastly I walked over the the other end down a shallow slope, still above ground level, then up more steeply. Nothing to add to my first observation about the seaward end.

Another hour-and-a-half gone and still loads of time until the bus so continued along this side road as it goes towards Woodwick before joining the main road. At one point I see large white stones either side of a straight burn coming down from the main road. Can't quite make out what they are in the oh so bright sunshine so take a photo. To my chagrin when I pass by the top these turn out to be not so grey wethers ! By Midland looking to the near shore there is a long mound with a much smaller one a distance to its left. These are the Knowe of Midgarth (and cairn) and the Midland tumulus. There's only a field or two between shore and road but I was on a tight schedule because of the time of year and having already spent ages at Tingwall. Also all I saw through binoculars was sere grass and turf - if I had seen the prominent stonework the camera saw and this had been summer I would have been in like a shot. A bone pin and several probable potlids have been found at the Knowe of Midgarth. Though it has been partly explored this could have been simply 'mining' for stones to use on farms rather than owt antiquarian in nature.

As I say there are two sites at the Knowe of Midgarth, a long hillock adjacent to a circular mound [vaguely reminiscent of the 'Viking' mound and broch at the Howe of Hoxa]. Raymond Lamb says these two comprise a single settlement. Davidson and Henshall believe the former to be a "variant souterrain" like Castle Bloody (presumably the 'gallery grave' that used to be in Stromness parish, a term once used to describe the likes of Rennibister and Grain earthhouses) whilst P.O.A.S. VI in speaking of a grassy mound containing "sailor's graves" is surely referring to the latter [ so ? like the "West Broch of Burgar"]. All we know about the cairn (NMRS record no. HY32SE 1 at HY39872360) is that it is 100 yards SE of the hillock and has suffered a lot of plough damage but survives roughly four feet high and fifty across. We are better served by the records for the probable [multi-period?] settlement, HY32SE 6 at HY39812361. A five metre long passageway at the west end leads to two sub-rectangular corbelled cells, the size only given as small.. The first is two steps down from the passage, and though probably entry had been gained by antiquarians through its roof this had been repaired. Slightly beyond the chamber a short south-east passage leads to a larger cell through a narrow access, now blocked. Since before 1967 entry from the SE has blocked up and the two cells are filling up with debris. On the north side is the entry point for another passage that curves for at least ten metres before it is blocked. The shore nearby has a likely hearth consisting of four edgeset slabs that has produced charcoal. A trial excavation near the eastern top of the hillock has revealed yet another possible passage with maybe more cells, though this walling (way above the level of the north passage) consists of very overgrown stonework jumbled about. On this side of the mound facing the beach fragmentary masonry could represent a related drystane wall and there is kitchen midden along the eastern shoreline. To the north of the knowe the irregular Midland earth tumulus with small stones is thought to cover a prehistoric structure, though only one large-ish stone protrudes. HY32SE 7 at HY39732368 was slighly over half the size of the Midgarth tumulus (25~30m) but farming has removed a good deal. It strikes me that it too may have played a part in the extended settlement - perhaps the Blessed Raymond meant this mound anyways ?

An open gate beckoned me to a diagonal walk to shore. No gate unfortunately. Would have left it at that except I could see regular stonework at the other side of the burn. So gingerly over the fence, down onto the shore and then a small jump across the shallow stream. Just my look the stonework with its near regular lines is the handiwork of Mother Nature. Thought about walking down to shoreline to the sites but didn't know the state of the tides or whether they would be enclosed, and time pressed the no button. A couple of shots of them from distance before resuming my journey. Woodwick is a nature reserve and presents a fine line of trees to the viewer. Woodwick House is used to hold concerts and other cultural stuff, but no buses when they are on alas.

Now the turn and final stretch up to the main road. By the noth side of this stretch a field contains a big level piece of land, centred HY386238, that once held the Dam of Cott, the sluice lying at the north end (HY38642394). The 1882 map shows two corn mills along the Burn of Woodwick, one to the south of it (HY38822407) and a disused one on its north(I make this HY39062402), the former virtually due north of Walkerhouse and the latter a little north of east. It strikes me that originally the Dam of Cott flowed out along past Walkerhouse to join the Burn of Woodwick where the disused mill still stood [nothing shows on CANMAP]. JUst now looking at a corn kiln in the area (HY32SE 22 at HY38922401) this is probably what the Rendall Doocot started life as (unlike that at Woodwick House).

Now made my way to the Tingwall junction. At one point along this stretch of round there is a lovely domestic stone wall almost smack against the road, with a bijou stone house set back from this very slightly uphill so that its ground come to just below the wall top. It is very tidy, but oh that location almost on the road itself. Post the 1st O.S. map. Finally come to the home stretch, as it were. On the south side of the road, between but to the side of Upper and Lower Crowrar [IIRC], some pools are visible from the junction. I keep meaning to photograph them but they are invisible from the road going down to Tingwall. They are not on the 1882 map whatever they are. Back at the pier this time I simply awaited the bus.

Labels: corn kiln, corn mill, Dam of Cott, dovecote, Knowe of Midgarth, Midgarth, Midland, Tingwall, Woodwick