Orcadian landscapes

Over at Nether Bigging [aka Netherbigging] on a tongue of land called Gernaness [Girn of Ness] excavations at a site often underwater, called Clouston Castle [by its excavator at least ], were interpreted as a Norse borg plus a hof 'pagan temple' [fort HY31SW 36 HY30061192]. However tradition places an early church there and a tower whose remains they dug here was said to resemble that at Cross Kirk. Could it even be that when the site began to be flooded they moved on over to the present parish church ? Even if not it raises questions as to whether the Stenness kirk also started life as more than a religious foundation. At the 1906 rebuild two 14th century brooches were found. By the old altar a bottomless long cist in clay held a woman's body. Old notes attached to the museum exhibit state that the brooches lay beside her head but "The Orcadian" in 1907 says merely that they came from "one of the graves". In 1760 Pococke describes the church as mortarless or clay-bonded, having a thatch roof and a [semi-]circular tower at one end. This last is described as a steeple in an annotated copy of a William Aberdeen 'map' of the 1760's. It shows a flat roof so perhaps it was altered when it began use as a prison - St.Magnus Cathedral suffered such usage too. The map shows a tall building with yard to its left on the same patch of land, something like Garson by the looks of it, and F.W.L.Thomas map of 1849 bears the annotation in this area "The foundations of ancient Manor-house, or Place, are here perceptible, called The Trench". But Clouston's copy of the 6d lands of Stenness has the legend 'Palace of Stenness' SE of the kirkyard (E of the short bit of walling that connects to the kirkyard wall) and a geophysical survey found an interesting bunch of signals here. This is not necessarily an either or situation as though in Kirkwall locals talk of palaces as 'The Yards' in Stenness and Birsay the talk is of "the place" referring to the main or courtyard of a settlement, so it could be there had been an earlier dwelling which had gone by 1760. In 1956 Leith says locals believed 'the place' had occupied land in the area of the new churchyard and according to POAS XIV (two decades earlier) locals pointed to somewhere S of the kirk as having been a large building called The Palace of Stenness. In 1792 the church was rebuilt [on the same axis ?] and a stone vestry (HY31111245) built beside gate. Presumably this is when the ?secular building was taken down and the stones re-used, as this is gone by 1849 and the next re-build didn't take place until around 1843. Some red freestone window mouldings discovered in 1906 when the church adopted a smaller footprint are believed to be such re-used material. When Clouston excavated in 1906 he found that the tower had been built upon a square foundation and that this was narrower than the body of the church, contradicting Aberdeen's drawing. Perhaps a fresh look would re-assess the levels. Or not. His survey of this area is incomplete because he began to find what he describes as a "hint of bone" and he found no prior foundations within a yard of the W end - however in 1966 Ordnance Survey found a 1.2m long stretch of walling 0.2m high at HY31071245. Burials from near the new foundation were placed into a common grave. All things considered the kirk and manor-house of Pococke's map taken together are the Palace of Stenness of educated folk with the latter the 'place' of oral tradition. When it comes to being able to see ships coming from Hoy into Stromness we can only be talking of the viewpoint of one on the tower's flat roof.
In 1563 the Bellendens were granted the 6d land of Stenness with Vsquoy (Housequoy) & Mekilquoy [E of the kirk road] & Anderswi(c)k & Duascarth (Dowasgarth) & Bro(a)gar and for them and their descendants "the lands of the manse and principal house of Stenhoose." Included was the meadow of Biggiswall (Bigswell), a [tithe] barn and a mill. I thought the latter to be the predecessor of that at Tormiston but consideration of the boundaries means it would have been that beyond Housequoy that gave its name to Millhouse and Millquoy. The barn site would not be where Barnhouse is now, for on J.S.Clouston's copy of the 6d map [archive GB241/D23/10 p.100 of notebook] Barnhouse is in the field with the Barnhouse Standing Stone only about halfway up. On the other side of the field from old Barnhouse, by the Brodgar road, is shown a house called Habreck. According to "Orkney Farm Names" meaning not known [but perhaps cognate Haybreck/Hibreck].
Technically a manse is the priest's house amidst the glebe lands appertaining thereto. But throughout Stenness history kirk and manse have been used indiscrimately. One source has an alehouse near the church (probably small like Chinglebraes). Except that an account of the 1730s tells us that when the manse was not able to be used the officials used the alehouse at Knockhall instead. So are Manse and Knockhall the "manse and principal house". Alternatively should the phrase be read as the manse which is the principal house [another meaning of manse being manor-house (in Orkney later the term is mansion house)], as on Clouston's map Knockhall is in brackets to mark the name itself as late. The manse has been in many places e.g. Leith reports that in 1884 a new one was built on the hill above the church only to be sold in 1937 and renamed Saltigeo. Sultigeo is the site of the F.C. manse above the Clouston kirk.
P.S. On Clouston's map Big How(e) is named Biggoo which might mean that the name by which the site is now known is an antiquarian's rendering to bring out his interpretion of its meaning [so e.g. not big but bygga 'barley']. Six Clovy Knowes are shown in the SW corner of the field containing the Stones of Stenness circle and hence S of the Barnhouse Neolithic settlement. Pococke refers to these sans name and number and two of them (HY31SW 35) still appear on Thomas map. I think some stones from them were used to form the boundary running NE-SW to the Brodgar road.
Leith mentions an old house now gone. Cringloo was along the edge of the Muckle Burn of Stenness, which for most of its northern length has been canalised to be shown as a drain on modern maps. The name I read as two elements, the second being loo 'flat meadow by water'. However in a dialect dictionary I found the word kringlo 'small hillock'. Unfortunately even from the context there are no further clues in Leith as to where Cringloo was or where he found out about it.
In person
I visited Stenness kirk again. There are two carved stone mouldings of the same design in the kirkyard, one lying on the ground and the other wedged erect against a gatepost. They look to have come from a roof and are small pillar shapes with curves along the sides and a cross 'extruding' horizontally on top [photos in my Orkney Buildings Yahoo group]. Perhaps they came from the vestry that once stood by here, or else an earlier build of the kirk. I circled the church anti-clockwise looking for any signs of an earlier structure. As well as the modern stone grave covers there are less well hewn slabs protruding erect from the earth in various places in the SW quadrant of the kirkyard, which is where the land rises above the church itself. These are isolated and do not form any pattern - they don't appear to be mediaeval gravemarkers going by how one of them nearly came out when I wiggled it and all I can think of is that they were used to indicate where lines of modern graves should go. The rise here is covered in moss and very spongy, it really feels as if there is some far older physical presence below the new graves. It strikes me that perhaps that is what caused the parish church to be built at this spot, some antient site lost even to the antiquarian view of much earlier times. Just over the NW corner (HY31051243) is a small derelict structure of modern design, a new cottage once I'd wager. Coming down on the level again there is a hut next the S side of the kirkyard. Upon leaving the yard I turned to face the top of the rise where a rough wide track strikes up to that abandoned dwelling. Its very bumpy and bears all the signs of having been used as a dump for materials a long time ago. Finally I have it. Here lay the mansio before the kirkyard wall became extended and it was plundered for a holy purpose. Not in any field but in a triangle of land abstracted from a secular holding and mostly left to vegetate. From memory roughly HY31071242 on Pastmap.

Labels: Clovy Knowes, Palace of Stenness, Stenness Cross Kirk