Sunday, April 01, 2012
AT HOLM WITH BATTERIES February 11th 2012
For some reason the online Holm circular walks (http://www.walkorkney.co.uk/) haven't made it from the web into books. Having already done one of these (the Graemeshall one, which despite the name only has a corner there - it is best known for the Holm & Clett batteries) I decided to do the other, the two mile St Mary's circular walk. This starts off at the edge of the village heading for the Point of Skaildaquoy. I think that in the name Point of Skaildaquoy the second part is Skelderquoy 'oystercatcher field' (and indeed online the author uses both). Once over the ayre there is a new fence that the walk now has to skirt around, I could have entered the mired field but thought there should be another entrance. The old cobbled pier that juts out has a bite from the middle and the oystercatchers were all over it. The pier is consists of a bed of slabs with side walls of smaller slabs on edge. Just after here there is a space of a few yards where you are forced onto the shore - either a few feet have eroded from this place or the fence-builder has been most inconsiderate. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white, taking this for an owl until my binoculars revealed this bird as a male nen harrier hawking the fields. He dropped down several times and the times in between I managed several shots with my camera. Of course I should have done this when first I saw the bird, but in such situations the instinctive feeling is awe and one is just content to observe.
I found no other way in to the field and so contented myself with taking photos of the military installation from the fence. Having checked again beforehand I find the Skaildaquoy Point Battery is even earlier than I thought, being shown on the 2nd 25" O.S. drawn 1900 (having not been there in 1880 when the 1st was made). NMRS record no. HY40SE 71 at HY4720200663 is described from this thusly : two mounds in an hexagonal flagstaff enclosure with two pecked lines as perhaps gun emplacements, a narrow rectangular building 15m to the E and 60m NE a square building that is likely a magazine. To this they add a later structure seen on aerial photographs ~34m ENE.
In the field there are now only two standing structures. Having found a first small bank/moundlet before coming level with the nearest building and thought to myself this must be part of the enclosure, only to find when I looked at the 1900 map that this lay on the other side of the headland. Ah, me ! The stone-built building is slant-topped with a roof of large slabs [a few days later going to Deerness I spot the small building nestling amongst the Craw Howe mounds and it looks very similar. Could it be the mysterious Craw Howe is the remains of another such battery even though the larger mound/s are covered in thick peat - close by was a WWII ack-ack and, where the houses are now, huts]. This roof has a concrete lip at the high end and along one side. There is a tall narrow window-opening of plain design at the back. On the side adjoining there is an equally plain doorway placed at the low end. At the high end another narrow window-opening has been blocked in with more of the same stones and instead there is a small square one to its right. The most interesting features are between the blocked opening and the corner. Here there are three narrow horizontal slots arranged vertically - a half-hearted attempt has been made to block these at, I'm guessing, a later date.
Not far away is a rectangular building and over at the far side of the point, by the cliff edge I see two thin wings of stone like a butterfly bun or V for Victory. It is as if a giant gave a slab a karate chop. But back to that structure. The roofless building is roughly three times length to breadth. The main body is the same stonework as the battery but its framed openings are keyed blocks of stone with inset moulding - they put me in mind of the creations (both sacred and secular) of Earl Stewart's time, expressive works of art - which to my mind rules out its being the NMRS "later structure". There is a high square window opening at one end and a full height doorway at the other. In my images I see a short metal bar at the inside of the window opening and a square hole in the inner side wall near the window. The latter's top is at the same level as the bottom of the window's lintel, which position appears to rule out my original thought that this held a large timber to support the lost roof. From Skaildaquoy Point you can see across to the WWII battery on nearby Lamb Holm and in the distance, the other side of Churchill Barrier No.1, the WWI+II battery/batteries of Holm and Clett. No reason not to suspect that this battery was re-used in the 20th century.
The rectangular building is just within the north-easterly side of the six-sided enclosure, which has unequal sides (three of which fan out to match the coastline) and is orientated not quite NE/SW. To me the enclosure is simply a jumble of low banks. But then, not knowing that this was it I did not 'have my eye in' ! This side of the headland seems to have taken the brunt of erosion because of its relative height, so it isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that that I come across at the Victory sign is part of the battery itself. What I find is that the vee had been [I think] the roofing slab of a stone-lined passage under a low mound below it. My first thought is that this was another of those jobbies where a tractor has fallen through the top of a souterrain. However the stonework is nearer to that of the other buildings. Then I remember where I have seen something similar, though in that case over the passage is a concrete roof with the whole being part of what I would call a bunker, not knowing better, and it too has a low earth mound over the main body. This is in a field beside the Tradespark road. In this same field are the scant remains of the Heathery Loan WWII radio transmitter station. Though all that remains of this are scattered foundations as far as I can find out no-one has noted the 'bunker'. As I said 'getting your eye in' is king. The Holm passage's walls are mostly thin stone but there is a jumble of large stuff. There looks to be a wall, or at least blocking stones, where the cliff edge is. The inland end is probably the entrance and has squared off blocks either side. Continuing on the path I find a place reasonably safe to make my way onto the shore from and work back to the passage. From the shore a patchwork of stone definitely looks like the end wall is right at the edge - I am fairly sure of one side and the 'eye of faith' finds most of the other.
From the point the cliff lowers to the innermost part of the Bay of Sandber. Once you have bridged the Loch of Ayre's outlet you start to climb to greater heights. Almost at the cliff's edge I see what must have been a boundary stone, albeit a low one. Looking uphill I can see the start of the farmtrack headed northwards but is gated and this trail goes along the coastline instead. Ahead I see a modern stile continuing the walk. I think it's before this that there is very clear evidence of wholescale slippage in the form of an incomplete bite out of the cliff, a long arc in the grass several yards deep that the mind's eye sees falling into the sea below within the next few heavy storms. Even I decide to give this landslip a wide berth just in case ! The stile is a little too close to the edge for me after the rains we've had, and so I climb the fence more than I would normally in case the top of the stile swung me about.
I thought it wouldn't take me long to finish the walk only to find myself investigating lots of WWII archaeology, with a coastal battery not in Jeff Dorman's otherwise excellent book.
Continuing along the path I was intrigued by what looked like charcoal twigs sticking up on the skyline to my left. Going over revealed them as metal brackets in a ringed bank with a big hollow interior. At several places the bank had been cut into for small structures of concrete and corrugated iron. Though I have used the recorded names used for the wartime archaeology these have been chosen by me to give each (sub-)site a memorable identity for the reader. So this is Musie Geo light anti-aircraft gun emplacement, with lockers for the 'ammo'. RCAHMS NMRS no. HY40SE 39 lives at grid reference HY46490082. It sits beside the fence and further along a little hillock has a bank going coastward to where there is what I took for a modern hut, which I will come to in a minute. The geo itself is to the SSW. To the W of the ack-ack is a big chunk out of the high cliffs called Hesti Geo. Peering down I saw big waves crashing into the sea caves on its north side where the folds geology of narrow Clads Ber sticks out, though to me they seem to continue on the other side. The shore on the other side resembles a pavement of extremely long edgeset stones seperated from the lower part of the cliffs by a gravel 'path'. Went for a looksee at the tiny hillock and the bank but unable to fathom it out, and can find nothing on returning home either. Going back towards the hut I see nearby an arrangement of four square concrete piles with reinforcing rods pointing at the sky. Decided whilst there might as well have a closer look at that concrete block fabricated hut just in case it might be more photogenic this side. Glad I did or I would have missed out big time. There's a single door and a small window opening opposite it. At the back inside were two debris filled pits at the corners. The RH pit is larger and water-filled, and on closer inspection there is an intriguing narrow slot at the top in the wall. Each corner of the interior has a pair of thin blackened slots running from top to bottom that I feel held inner walls in place. The hut and the piles make up the Clads Ber site, HY40SE 38 at HY4645400897, which is strongly thought to be a WWII radio station with mast bases.
Whilst I have been taking my photos along comes a proper photographer and sits on a 'pile'. A resplendent male in red, white and green, rucksack on his back with his enormous overcompensating lens watching the birdies. Not the place I would have chosen to film fulmars myself. There you are perpetually looking down at them whilst on the clifftops above Taracliff Bay, for example, thare are places you can simultaneously see up and down and across !
Not much further along the path I see a concrete foundation by that fence with a long run-up. From the path a track with two deep ruts goes to that twin ramp, and I follow it, moving from side to side to avoid the swampy bits. The local sheep decide they too want their photo took, one even coming onto the ramp with me. The structure is built of large composite stone blocks. Within is a narrow rectangular hollow matching in width lines continuing the inner faces of the ramp. Nothing within. Outside the structure steps come in at an odd angle to the N wall, abut it but stop strangely short of the top. Its angle matches the drain shown on Pastmap, this coming in from the NW just as the cable trench is said to. At the NE corner a very staight drain, not depicted, from the N suddenly stops, going nowhere, and actually this would be my candidate for a trench. This site is the ramp and platform for the Howequoy Mobile Radar Unit, HY40SE35.01 at HY4646101070. From here the track ran through water-logged land. to the north a fence seperated me from an obvious military installation, so I went across for a look in case this was as near as I could get. Along the way there were large concrete foundations. Turns out these are all that is left of an accomodation camp going with the site next door.
This complex is Howequoy Battery, HY40SE 35 at HY4635101271. After photographing it from points by the fence I went up and rejoined the track, which passes by the east fence. Now I saw a way in, an 'Orkney gate'. Unfortunately this is secured by a
barbed-wire loop, an effective padlock against that super-intelligent sheep, man. Difficult to match the record to what's on the ground as parts went at various times and some descriptions seem to be duplications. 1) First mention is a couple of earth banked gun emplacements and a command control bunker, 2) command centre as concrete and earth in a tumbled mass, hut bases, decoy battery of four buildings W of command post. From outside using several viewpoints east to west I can distinguish four distinct parts,all of stone blocks and all set into banks, all but one amongst walls of the same stone blocks - i) possibly L-shaped buildings face one another ii) a couple of open-faced structures at 45-90 degrees from one another [oh, and possibly another structure by itself] iii) four open-faced structures at right angles to one another [one has pairs of smallish {?sub-}rectangular holes below the concrete top on opposing walls] iiii) a much larger rectangular structure. The last and most westerly stands out from the rest and has an outer wash/coating. Most of its apertures are now stuffed with irregular stone blocks and the uphill bank has old large wide planks and a couple of big stones where it abuts the building. I'm surely not doing the battery justice and am probably mis-reading what I see, but unless someone like the ODIN Network goes into the field to make a survey my photos will have to do as Dorman somehow missed or left it out.
The track then joins a road. I considered going on to the Westerbister road. But time was marching on and I felt I would gain no better views of the South Isles, and St Ola in the distance, than already shot by me. So my feet turned right to go to the main road. I realised that I still had time before the next bus, considered walking the main road north until the bus caught me up but simply could not resist going to the Ayre broch between the farmroad and the loch - always good to revisit places when you have a different camera, especially as this one does 'digital negatives' which my previous ones did not. One website uses the term "destroyed" for brochs such as St Mary's, however it survives to head height and many only ever had one floor so that is practically meaningless. No long flashy tower wall arc like Nettletar but several shorter broch wall sections, some exposed and some hiding behind grassy fringes. The excavation of this was one of the earliest to make a full record of the animal and plant remains. Like many "Atlantic roundhouse" settlements in Orkney the outbuildings keep to one 'side' of the broch. In this case they can be seen as winding passages between the broch tower and the main road (though stopping short of this). I was delighted to uncover a section of walling here too.
Perhaps I should have used the still camera's video capacity to additionally document the broch settlement. Anyways, the timetable took precedence. Thought about waiting at the near corner of St Mary's for the bus but continued around for the closest shelter rather than have the driver stop in a potentially difficult spot. As the shelter hoved into view the bus had already arrived. So had to make a mad dash for it - fortunately Orkney's bus drivers will wait a moment on eejits like me (usually).
Representative photos of the coastal batteries I have seen can be found on Orkney Live, to wit Skaildaquoy Point Battery http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/49 , Howequoy Head Battery http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/50 , Holm/Clett Batteries http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/47 , Rerwick Head Battery (Tankerness in St Andrew's) http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/44
For some reason the online Holm circular walks (http://www.walkorkney.co.uk/) haven't made it from the web into books. Having already done one of these (the Graemeshall one, which despite the name only has a corner there - it is best known for the Holm & Clett batteries) I decided to do the other, the two mile St Mary's circular walk. This starts off at the edge of the village heading for the Point of Skaildaquoy. I think that in the name Point of Skaildaquoy the second part is Skelderquoy 'oystercatcher field' (and indeed online the author uses both). Once over the ayre there is a new fence that the walk now has to skirt around, I could have entered the mired field but thought there should be another entrance. The old cobbled pier that juts out has a bite from the middle and the oystercatchers were all over it. The pier is consists of a bed of slabs with side walls of smaller slabs on edge. Just after here there is a space of a few yards where you are forced onto the shore - either a few feet have eroded from this place or the fence-builder has been most inconsiderate. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white, taking this for an owl until my binoculars revealed this bird as a male nen harrier hawking the fields. He dropped down several times and the times in between I managed several shots with my camera. Of course I should have done this when first I saw the bird, but in such situations the instinctive feeling is awe and one is just content to observe.
I found no other way in to the field and so contented myself with taking photos of the military installation from the fence. Having checked again beforehand I find the Skaildaquoy Point Battery is even earlier than I thought, being shown on the 2nd 25" O.S. drawn 1900 (having not been there in 1880 when the 1st was made). NMRS record no. HY40SE 71 at HY4720200663 is described from this thusly : two mounds in an hexagonal flagstaff enclosure with two pecked lines as perhaps gun emplacements, a narrow rectangular building 15m to the E and 60m NE a square building that is likely a magazine. To this they add a later structure seen on aerial photographs ~34m ENE.
In the field there are now only two standing structures. Having found a first small bank/moundlet before coming level with the nearest building and thought to myself this must be part of the enclosure, only to find when I looked at the 1900 map that this lay on the other side of the headland. Ah, me ! The stone-built building is slant-topped with a roof of large slabs [a few days later going to Deerness I spot the small building nestling amongst the Craw Howe mounds and it looks very similar. Could it be the mysterious Craw Howe is the remains of another such battery even though the larger mound/s are covered in thick peat - close by was a WWII ack-ack and, where the houses are now, huts]. This roof has a concrete lip at the high end and along one side. There is a tall narrow window-opening of plain design at the back. On the side adjoining there is an equally plain doorway placed at the low end. At the high end another narrow window-opening has been blocked in with more of the same stones and instead there is a small square one to its right. The most interesting features are between the blocked opening and the corner. Here there are three narrow horizontal slots arranged vertically - a half-hearted attempt has been made to block these at, I'm guessing, a later date.
Not far away is a rectangular building and over at the far side of the point, by the cliff edge I see two thin wings of stone like a butterfly bun or V for Victory. It is as if a giant gave a slab a karate chop. But back to that structure. The roofless building is roughly three times length to breadth. The main body is the same stonework as the battery but its framed openings are keyed blocks of stone with inset moulding - they put me in mind of the creations (both sacred and secular) of Earl Stewart's time, expressive works of art - which to my mind rules out its being the NMRS "later structure". There is a high square window opening at one end and a full height doorway at the other. In my images I see a short metal bar at the inside of the window opening and a square hole in the inner side wall near the window. The latter's top is at the same level as the bottom of the window's lintel, which position appears to rule out my original thought that this held a large timber to support the lost roof. From Skaildaquoy Point you can see across to the WWII battery on nearby Lamb Holm and in the distance, the other side of Churchill Barrier No.1, the WWI+II battery/batteries of Holm and Clett. No reason not to suspect that this battery was re-used in the 20th century.
The rectangular building is just within the north-easterly side of the six-sided enclosure, which has unequal sides (three of which fan out to match the coastline) and is orientated not quite NE/SW. To me the enclosure is simply a jumble of low banks. But then, not knowing that this was it I did not 'have my eye in' ! This side of the headland seems to have taken the brunt of erosion because of its relative height, so it isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that that I come across at the Victory sign is part of the battery itself. What I find is that the vee had been [I think] the roofing slab of a stone-lined passage under a low mound below it. My first thought is that this was another of those jobbies where a tractor has fallen through the top of a souterrain. However the stonework is nearer to that of the other buildings. Then I remember where I have seen something similar, though in that case over the passage is a concrete roof with the whole being part of what I would call a bunker, not knowing better, and it too has a low earth mound over the main body. This is in a field beside the Tradespark road. In this same field are the scant remains of the Heathery Loan WWII radio transmitter station. Though all that remains of this are scattered foundations as far as I can find out no-one has noted the 'bunker'. As I said 'getting your eye in' is king. The Holm passage's walls are mostly thin stone but there is a jumble of large stuff. There looks to be a wall, or at least blocking stones, where the cliff edge is. The inland end is probably the entrance and has squared off blocks either side. Continuing on the path I find a place reasonably safe to make my way onto the shore from and work back to the passage. From the shore a patchwork of stone definitely looks like the end wall is right at the edge - I am fairly sure of one side and the 'eye of faith' finds most of the other.
From the point the cliff lowers to the innermost part of the Bay of Sandber. Once you have bridged the Loch of Ayre's outlet you start to climb to greater heights. Almost at the cliff's edge I see what must have been a boundary stone, albeit a low one. Looking uphill I can see the start of the farmtrack headed northwards but is gated and this trail goes along the coastline instead. Ahead I see a modern stile continuing the walk. I think it's before this that there is very clear evidence of wholescale slippage in the form of an incomplete bite out of the cliff, a long arc in the grass several yards deep that the mind's eye sees falling into the sea below within the next few heavy storms. Even I decide to give this landslip a wide berth just in case ! The stile is a little too close to the edge for me after the rains we've had, and so I climb the fence more than I would normally in case the top of the stile swung me about.
I thought it wouldn't take me long to finish the walk only to find myself investigating lots of WWII archaeology, with a coastal battery not in Jeff Dorman's otherwise excellent book.
Continuing along the path I was intrigued by what looked like charcoal twigs sticking up on the skyline to my left. Going over revealed them as metal brackets in a ringed bank with a big hollow interior. At several places the bank had been cut into for small structures of concrete and corrugated iron. Though I have used the recorded names used for the wartime archaeology these have been chosen by me to give each (sub-)site a memorable identity for the reader. So this is Musie Geo light anti-aircraft gun emplacement, with lockers for the 'ammo'. RCAHMS NMRS no. HY40SE 39 lives at grid reference HY46490082. It sits beside the fence and further along a little hillock has a bank going coastward to where there is what I took for a modern hut, which I will come to in a minute. The geo itself is to the SSW. To the W of the ack-ack is a big chunk out of the high cliffs called Hesti Geo. Peering down I saw big waves crashing into the sea caves on its north side where the folds geology of narrow Clads Ber sticks out, though to me they seem to continue on the other side. The shore on the other side resembles a pavement of extremely long edgeset stones seperated from the lower part of the cliffs by a gravel 'path'. Went for a looksee at the tiny hillock and the bank but unable to fathom it out, and can find nothing on returning home either. Going back towards the hut I see nearby an arrangement of four square concrete piles with reinforcing rods pointing at the sky. Decided whilst there might as well have a closer look at that concrete block fabricated hut just in case it might be more photogenic this side. Glad I did or I would have missed out big time. There's a single door and a small window opening opposite it. At the back inside were two debris filled pits at the corners. The RH pit is larger and water-filled, and on closer inspection there is an intriguing narrow slot at the top in the wall. Each corner of the interior has a pair of thin blackened slots running from top to bottom that I feel held inner walls in place. The hut and the piles make up the Clads Ber site, HY40SE 38 at HY4645400897, which is strongly thought to be a WWII radio station with mast bases.
Whilst I have been taking my photos along comes a proper photographer and sits on a 'pile'. A resplendent male in red, white and green, rucksack on his back with his enormous overcompensating lens watching the birdies. Not the place I would have chosen to film fulmars myself. There you are perpetually looking down at them whilst on the clifftops above Taracliff Bay, for example, thare are places you can simultaneously see up and down and across !
Not much further along the path I see a concrete foundation by that fence with a long run-up. From the path a track with two deep ruts goes to that twin ramp, and I follow it, moving from side to side to avoid the swampy bits. The local sheep decide they too want their photo took, one even coming onto the ramp with me. The structure is built of large composite stone blocks. Within is a narrow rectangular hollow matching in width lines continuing the inner faces of the ramp. Nothing within. Outside the structure steps come in at an odd angle to the N wall, abut it but stop strangely short of the top. Its angle matches the drain shown on Pastmap, this coming in from the NW just as the cable trench is said to. At the NE corner a very staight drain, not depicted, from the N suddenly stops, going nowhere, and actually this would be my candidate for a trench. This site is the ramp and platform for the Howequoy Mobile Radar Unit, HY40SE35.01 at HY4646101070. From here the track ran through water-logged land. to the north a fence seperated me from an obvious military installation, so I went across for a look in case this was as near as I could get. Along the way there were large concrete foundations. Turns out these are all that is left of an accomodation camp going with the site next door.
This complex is Howequoy Battery, HY40SE 35 at HY4635101271. After photographing it from points by the fence I went up and rejoined the track, which passes by the east fence. Now I saw a way in, an 'Orkney gate'. Unfortunately this is secured by a
barbed-wire loop, an effective padlock against that super-intelligent sheep, man. Difficult to match the record to what's on the ground as parts went at various times and some descriptions seem to be duplications. 1) First mention is a couple of earth banked gun emplacements and a command control bunker, 2) command centre as concrete and earth in a tumbled mass, hut bases, decoy battery of four buildings W of command post. From outside using several viewpoints east to west I can distinguish four distinct parts,all of stone blocks and all set into banks, all but one amongst walls of the same stone blocks - i) possibly L-shaped buildings face one another ii) a couple of open-faced structures at 45-90 degrees from one another [oh, and possibly another structure by itself] iii) four open-faced structures at right angles to one another [one has pairs of smallish {?sub-}rectangular holes below the concrete top on opposing walls] iiii) a much larger rectangular structure. The last and most westerly stands out from the rest and has an outer wash/coating. Most of its apertures are now stuffed with irregular stone blocks and the uphill bank has old large wide planks and a couple of big stones where it abuts the building. I'm surely not doing the battery justice and am probably mis-reading what I see, but unless someone like the ODIN Network goes into the field to make a survey my photos will have to do as Dorman somehow missed or left it out.
The track then joins a road. I considered going on to the Westerbister road. But time was marching on and I felt I would gain no better views of the South Isles, and St Ola in the distance, than already shot by me. So my feet turned right to go to the main road. I realised that I still had time before the next bus, considered walking the main road north until the bus caught me up but simply could not resist going to the Ayre broch between the farmroad and the loch - always good to revisit places when you have a different camera, especially as this one does 'digital negatives' which my previous ones did not. One website uses the term "destroyed" for brochs such as St Mary's, however it survives to head height and many only ever had one floor so that is practically meaningless. No long flashy tower wall arc like Nettletar but several shorter broch wall sections, some exposed and some hiding behind grassy fringes. The excavation of this was one of the earliest to make a full record of the animal and plant remains. Like many "Atlantic roundhouse" settlements in Orkney the outbuildings keep to one 'side' of the broch. In this case they can be seen as winding passages between the broch tower and the main road (though stopping short of this). I was delighted to uncover a section of walling here too.
Perhaps I should have used the still camera's video capacity to additionally document the broch settlement. Anyways, the timetable took precedence. Thought about waiting at the near corner of St Mary's for the bus but continued around for the closest shelter rather than have the driver stop in a potentially difficult spot. As the shelter hoved into view the bus had already arrived. So had to make a mad dash for it - fortunately Orkney's bus drivers will wait a moment on eejits like me (usually).
Representative photos of the coastal batteries I have seen can be found on Orkney Live, to wit Skaildaquoy Point Battery http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/49 , Howequoy Head Battery http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/50 , Holm/Clett Batteries http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/47 , Rerwick Head Battery (Tankerness in St Andrew's) http://www.orkneylive.com/members/profile/257/albums/44
Labels: ack-ack, Ayre Broch, Clads Ber, coastal battery, Heathery Loan, Howequoy, mobile radar, Musie Geo, Point of Skaildaquoy, RTS, Skaildaquoy Point Battery, Skelderquoy, St Mary's, WWII
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
ST.MARY'S TO SOUTH DAWN December 30th 2011
Took advantage of a forecast few hours without rain to go to Holm again. Coming down to St Mary's just before the turn between the road and the loch you can if you are lucky make out the Loch of Ayre broch. This is well camouflaged by grass but you can wander around inside. The archaeologists say the walls survive to five feet high but it is a little higher as standing in the centre (and other places) you cannot see over the top. Many brochs were only ever a storey high, so it strikes me as silly that one website refers to it as a "destroyed broch" along with others that survive equally well. Can't all be Mousa! Over at Skaildaquoy Point there are the remains of a Great War battery, which I only found out later. I think Skaildaquoy is probably named for skeldro 'oystercatchers', though this is simply an educated guess. There are boundaries left at this side of the village. Further along are some named 17thC houses. The storehouse by the shore doesn't look to be as big as its predecessor at the Greenwall grange. I had to get off at the edge of St Mary's as the next fare stage, the Italian Chapel, starts here and my return ticket did not include that.
East of the Churchill Barrier there was until very recently two winches and a small hut. These were all that remained of the fishery here, not big enough to have been marked thus in 1879. I imagine this got shifted to make the way clear for the road sign a few years ago. A pity. Not many metres further east there is still some kind of small machine at the base of the low cliff, possibly ?? a pump. Graemeshall has a mound or mounds beside the road. The first of these has a circular drystone structure at the highest point that looks like a well but on the first 25" is labelled Sun Dial. I think it is presently down as being the site of a flag, though if old it would have the legend Flagstaff (there are both Flagstaff and Sun Dial at Manse in East Holm), so it must have replaced the 'dial' after 1879. There has been an 'excavation' in the mound beside the road, just inside the wall, like a small rectangular sandpit but this is of recent origin. Still would like to know why it is there, however. Going up the road between the buildings the sun beams down on bands of green and yellow and brown. The yellow is the reeds/rushes lining the loch and pushing across it, the green the hillslope pastures behind. Across in the distance I saw what appeared to be the just visible prongs of a tractor where I thought the road to be. This turned out to be a pheasant racing across ! Where the road turns to Graemeshall Cottage there is a big modern shed. For some reason Pastmap places in the field here, NE of Tighsith, a record relating to the cross-slab from Graemeshall
Chapel - perhaps someone had an inkling of something but didn't want it official. The only thing I can see is a very small mound lochside, and even if this were artificial it is surely too peedie even for a private chapel. Tighsith sounds very Irish, not Orcadian at all, in which case could the second element be sidhe, the Shining Folk ?
Now the hill starts and it is only by peering over the east roadside wall that you can see the disused twin quarries belonging to East Gr[e]aves. Looking further up you can see Laughton's Knowe from which a Bronze Age razor came. This is the first of the mounds shown behind Skaill. The others are named for Hall of Gorn - on the earlier map this appears correctly as Hall of Gorm, someone later didn't see the curlicue on the 1st O.S. that makes it an em, a not uncommon occurence with flowery scripts. I'd love to associate this with the hell-hound Garmr but odds are it is the Viking personal name (there was a semi-legendary 10thC King Gorm). At Biggings you can go left and reach the main road. As it continued dry I carried on instead. Incorporated in the north wall of the entrance to Craebreck is what I have taken to be an old milestone painted white. When I first saw and photographed this back in 2006 the writing still remained fairly legible, though I couldn't work out where it related to. This time I noticed what might be a smaller version standing at a field corner before that, also marked but unpainted. How very strange to have milestones so very close to one another. The unlikeliness stood confirmed on finding another at another field corner north of the entrance. These three marked 'milestones' appear to mark Craebreck's boundaries, or at least the farmhouse grounds.
The road turns again at Mosshouse. West of here used to be a large pond and a lochan called Laird's Loch with a small islet, Lairdshill being the house north of Mosshouse. Where the map shows a well that marks the western end of the loch. From the road I think this is a high point with two pieces on top that at high magnification reveal themselves as two tall slabs on end facing one another. My guess is that these were used in bringing up water, they might even have been part of a simple wellhouse though that isn't likely here. In 1962 men laying water mains on the NW side of the road near Roma found an underground passage with possible stalls. They ended up blocking off both ends.
At the road junction I turned right and passed the old schoolhouse that is now a private dwelling. Below the place called The Loons a big marshy area used to be a millpond. Now the rain started. In front of where the Graemeshall Burn crosses the road is a mound with an almost terraced appearance. Before it has been a mystery, it looks like something prehistoric or some winding track. But now I know that this is a lade, the channel taking water to the former mill on the southern side of the road. In the sumertime the 'valley' over that side is breathtaking. There is a nice bridge crossing the burn. By now the rain had really started to fall heavily. Just left of the farmtrack to Little Millhouse you come to Becky's Well which I had hoped to photograph with my Casio digital camera. It resembles a large roadside drain composed of slabs. Unfortunately to take a picture I would have had not only to uncover the opening but then also kneel on the ground and place the camera inside the entrance. So no go this time. Fortunately I have pics from previous cameras. Despite the rain I did manage a few shots of the Holm/Clett Battery from this direction. I also took pictures of the flooded fields below Netherton, with the flooding going all the way to the roadbridge. Reaching the war memorial at the junction I was glad of the partial shelter of its walls until the rain went away.
Having already taken a few more very distant shots of the mounds below Hestakelda (the farm to the south of Hestamuir at the top of the unnamed burn) east of the geo. Though the bases seem natural enough they do draw the enquiring mind. Especially the
lower mound that has obviously had a great big scoop taken out of it at some time - mind you the barrow bagging barons of early antiquarianism would excavate any pimple even ! There was a well alongside the ravine that is not on the 1:25,000 so it's always possible this was dug out. From downhill part of the mound can put you in mind of Maes Howe, in that you have the distinct feeling there is a large door you could enter the mound by. Very evocative of something visited by folk in the past. The ravine or whatever ends at the top end of the Mass Gate track without seeming to go anywhere. I'd have to blame the rain for forgetting to look for the stone at the knee where the track meets the tarmac road so I still don't know if this survives. Missed chances. Speaking of which, thought I had a second chance to have a clear shot at a solitary pheasant when I saw a bird by itself in the middle of the field where the hill flattens, except that it turned out to be a lone cockerel. Good photo though.
Nature presented me with masses of lovely sculptured white clouds, with cloudscapes filling the horizon across the barriers. Also took a couple of pics of Skaildaquoy Point in the distance.Glad to reach the village toilets after a couple of hours walk. If I had known about the WWI battery I might have gone on to the ness on a look-see. Did think about taking the farmroad over towards the Taing of Westbank (now I know part of the St Mar's circular walk) to see new horizons and see if the camera took to them at this time. To do so I would have had to take the bus after next, but not only could I not trust the weather turning again (the gods had accomodated me enough I felt !) even more importantly my body had only signed up for the walking I had done and my legs were starting to sag. So instead home and, yes, shopping again.
Took advantage of a forecast few hours without rain to go to Holm again. Coming down to St Mary's just before the turn between the road and the loch you can if you are lucky make out the Loch of Ayre broch. This is well camouflaged by grass but you can wander around inside. The archaeologists say the walls survive to five feet high but it is a little higher as standing in the centre (and other places) you cannot see over the top. Many brochs were only ever a storey high, so it strikes me as silly that one website refers to it as a "destroyed broch" along with others that survive equally well. Can't all be Mousa! Over at Skaildaquoy Point there are the remains of a Great War battery, which I only found out later. I think Skaildaquoy is probably named for skeldro 'oystercatchers', though this is simply an educated guess. There are boundaries left at this side of the village. Further along are some named 17thC houses. The storehouse by the shore doesn't look to be as big as its predecessor at the Greenwall grange. I had to get off at the edge of St Mary's as the next fare stage, the Italian Chapel, starts here and my return ticket did not include that.
East of the Churchill Barrier there was until very recently two winches and a small hut. These were all that remained of the fishery here, not big enough to have been marked thus in 1879. I imagine this got shifted to make the way clear for the road sign a few years ago. A pity. Not many metres further east there is still some kind of small machine at the base of the low cliff, possibly ?? a pump. Graemeshall has a mound or mounds beside the road. The first of these has a circular drystone structure at the highest point that looks like a well but on the first 25" is labelled Sun Dial. I think it is presently down as being the site of a flag, though if old it would have the legend Flagstaff (there are both Flagstaff and Sun Dial at Manse in East Holm), so it must have replaced the 'dial' after 1879. There has been an 'excavation' in the mound beside the road, just inside the wall, like a small rectangular sandpit but this is of recent origin. Still would like to know why it is there, however. Going up the road between the buildings the sun beams down on bands of green and yellow and brown. The yellow is the reeds/rushes lining the loch and pushing across it, the green the hillslope pastures behind. Across in the distance I saw what appeared to be the just visible prongs of a tractor where I thought the road to be. This turned out to be a pheasant racing across ! Where the road turns to Graemeshall Cottage there is a big modern shed. For some reason Pastmap places in the field here, NE of Tighsith, a record relating to the cross-slab from Graemeshall
Chapel - perhaps someone had an inkling of something but didn't want it official. The only thing I can see is a very small mound lochside, and even if this were artificial it is surely too peedie even for a private chapel. Tighsith sounds very Irish, not Orcadian at all, in which case could the second element be sidhe, the Shining Folk ?
Now the hill starts and it is only by peering over the east roadside wall that you can see the disused twin quarries belonging to East Gr[e]aves. Looking further up you can see Laughton's Knowe from which a Bronze Age razor came. This is the first of the mounds shown behind Skaill. The others are named for Hall of Gorn - on the earlier map this appears correctly as Hall of Gorm, someone later didn't see the curlicue on the 1st O.S. that makes it an em, a not uncommon occurence with flowery scripts. I'd love to associate this with the hell-hound Garmr but odds are it is the Viking personal name (there was a semi-legendary 10thC King Gorm). At Biggings you can go left and reach the main road. As it continued dry I carried on instead. Incorporated in the north wall of the entrance to Craebreck is what I have taken to be an old milestone painted white. When I first saw and photographed this back in 2006 the writing still remained fairly legible, though I couldn't work out where it related to. This time I noticed what might be a smaller version standing at a field corner before that, also marked but unpainted. How very strange to have milestones so very close to one another. The unlikeliness stood confirmed on finding another at another field corner north of the entrance. These three marked 'milestones' appear to mark Craebreck's boundaries, or at least the farmhouse grounds.
The road turns again at Mosshouse. West of here used to be a large pond and a lochan called Laird's Loch with a small islet, Lairdshill being the house north of Mosshouse. Where the map shows a well that marks the western end of the loch. From the road I think this is a high point with two pieces on top that at high magnification reveal themselves as two tall slabs on end facing one another. My guess is that these were used in bringing up water, they might even have been part of a simple wellhouse though that isn't likely here. In 1962 men laying water mains on the NW side of the road near Roma found an underground passage with possible stalls. They ended up blocking off both ends.
At the road junction I turned right and passed the old schoolhouse that is now a private dwelling. Below the place called The Loons a big marshy area used to be a millpond. Now the rain started. In front of where the Graemeshall Burn crosses the road is a mound with an almost terraced appearance. Before it has been a mystery, it looks like something prehistoric or some winding track. But now I know that this is a lade, the channel taking water to the former mill on the southern side of the road. In the sumertime the 'valley' over that side is breathtaking. There is a nice bridge crossing the burn. By now the rain had really started to fall heavily. Just left of the farmtrack to Little Millhouse you come to Becky's Well which I had hoped to photograph with my Casio digital camera. It resembles a large roadside drain composed of slabs. Unfortunately to take a picture I would have had not only to uncover the opening but then also kneel on the ground and place the camera inside the entrance. So no go this time. Fortunately I have pics from previous cameras. Despite the rain I did manage a few shots of the Holm/Clett Battery from this direction. I also took pictures of the flooded fields below Netherton, with the flooding going all the way to the roadbridge. Reaching the war memorial at the junction I was glad of the partial shelter of its walls until the rain went away.
Having already taken a few more very distant shots of the mounds below Hestakelda (the farm to the south of Hestamuir at the top of the unnamed burn) east of the geo. Though the bases seem natural enough they do draw the enquiring mind. Especially the
lower mound that has obviously had a great big scoop taken out of it at some time - mind you the barrow bagging barons of early antiquarianism would excavate any pimple even ! There was a well alongside the ravine that is not on the 1:25,000 so it's always possible this was dug out. From downhill part of the mound can put you in mind of Maes Howe, in that you have the distinct feeling there is a large door you could enter the mound by. Very evocative of something visited by folk in the past. The ravine or whatever ends at the top end of the Mass Gate track without seeming to go anywhere. I'd have to blame the rain for forgetting to look for the stone at the knee where the track meets the tarmac road so I still don't know if this survives. Missed chances. Speaking of which, thought I had a second chance to have a clear shot at a solitary pheasant when I saw a bird by itself in the middle of the field where the hill flattens, except that it turned out to be a lone cockerel. Good photo though.
Nature presented me with masses of lovely sculptured white clouds, with cloudscapes filling the horizon across the barriers. Also took a couple of pics of Skaildaquoy Point in the distance.Glad to reach the village toilets after a couple of hours walk. If I had known about the WWI battery I might have gone on to the ness on a look-see. Did think about taking the farmroad over towards the Taing of Westbank (now I know part of the St Mar's circular walk) to see new horizons and see if the camera took to them at this time. To do so I would have had to take the bus after next, but not only could I not trust the weather turning again (the gods had accomodated me enough I felt !) even more importantly my body had only signed up for the walking I had done and my legs were starting to sag. So instead home and, yes, shopping again.
Labels: Becky's Well, Craebreck, Graemeshall, Hall of Gorm, Hestakelda, Laughton's Knowe, mill lade, Roma souterrain, Skaildaquoy Point Battery, St Mary's, Sun Dial
