Orcadian landscapes

HAPPY VALLEY TO SCALE June 28th 2011

Finished my work at the Blide Trust with time to spare for the camera club trip, led by someone who turned out to be called Claire. And fortunately there was still space on the eight-seater Caravelle.
We were going to visit Happy Valley in Stenness parish, which I had always intended to visit - like many ferryloupers I need the green, and on occasion graminiferae (grasses) just won't do ;-) . Actually as an archaeophile I would love to have gone to the end of the Bigswell road itself. On midsummer eve a fire was lit on the ridge of Bigswell Hill, possibly the mound shown west of Mid Bigswell. And in this area is a holy well - children bathed here as part of ceremonies that continued at the Stone of Odin, and kneeling lovers drank the waters prior to taking the vow of Odin at said stone. This was also a healing well. At Beltane patients circled the sacred well deosil (clockwise) before taking a drink from the waters. Those who were epileptic or unsound of mind were plunged into it before being left overnight tied to a post beside the well (I am reminded of the stake left to mark the position of the Kethesgeo stone in Stenness' Clouston district). Presuming that the traditions do indeed relate to one particular well there are differing opinions as to which.it is. Moderns prefer a well at HY3345810462, fifty yards from the Mid Bigswell on a slope over the road. Antiquarians preferred one (HY3362110813) in the Moss of Bigswald below Nether Bigswell with alignments to the Standing Stones on the
Beltane and Midwinter lines, though the wellspring shown SE of Lower/Nether Bigswell, with 'drain', is an even better fit to the description. Here an underground passage of several yards length streamed water to a high-capacity spring with a well (once several yards across) having one or two steps into it.
It also holds interest for the historian as the last battle on Orkney soil took place mostly on the Moss of Bigswald (i.e. Bigswell) in Symmerdale 'springs valley'. A 1599 Scottish invasion [sorry, "expedition"] was decisively repelled at the Battle of Summerdale - possibly after a failed pincer movement as though the main body of Scots landed at Houton others are said to have come via Wasdale in Firth. The battle started at the Hole o' Pow [pow 'pool'] and the Earl of Caithness and most of the Scots were killed here in the Moss of Bigswald. The two Scottish leaders were buried seperately, Lord Sinclair near the moss with a stone marker [? HY34831058] and the earl on the other side of the Burn of Skaill from the traditional Oback site for the Orphir palace and church of the earls, especially earls Harold and Paul (certainly wherever this was Sweyn Asleifarson escaped from the palace up the Dale of Oback to make for Damsay) . The earl's slab memorial was later broken up for domestic use, sometime before 1898, but back in place by 1927. A group of Bronze Age mounds on the west side of the '50-50' road before reaching the Oback-South Fea crossroads are the "heaps of earth" tradition places over the Scottish slain, just by my choice for his lordship's marker. Some Caithness refugees are said to have retreated and sought asylum at the kirk on the Loch of Wasdale after throwing their arms into the Loch of Lummagen by Kebro (the lochan disappeared overnight last century with no finds reported despite many stones having been been removed previously). Aft gang aglae, hey.

The minibus side-door is a bit of a three bears when you are on the inside as when you try to shut it mostly it either does not catch or else bounces back. Fortunately the front seat passenger did the deed from ouside, a grizzled pyramid of a man even taller than Claire. Alongside me sat a mature student nurse on secondment to Orkney. In the back a quiet man sat quietly. Turned out our guide had never been to Happy Valley before and had little idea how to get there - coming from Kirkwall, after you pass the road to the rings and Knowes of Broidgar on your right and then on your left is a branch road with a 'no through road' symbol, which is where you need to go. Then past the Stoursdale farmroad turning [if I remember correctly mysen ;-) ] is another near the southern end of the Happy Valley plantation. There is a kind of rough car parking space, in a tight squeeze you might fit in as many cars as the minibus sat people. This keeps traffic small and light, preserving the tranquility and saving the roads from unbudgeted 'wear and tear'.
A babbling brook runs through it, and we could have done with more talk less hurry. This is part of the Burn of Russadale that runs below the west flank of Brown Hill from Mid Hill and eventually comes past Dams and nigh the main road - there is a Millhouse east of the school. It were nice to see two lads with strimmers doing the cottage lawn. Claire pointed out several rusty pieces of ironmongery sitting against the end wall but nobody bit - wrong shade of rust for me ! The old boy who created the place made plenty of nooks and crannies with many walls of varied stone and aspect, you wonder what might have been before him if anything. By the ford the rectangular structure that looks to be the remains of a mill is the electricity generator, the deteriorating plywood water-wheel perhap a recycled SWA cable drum. Further down the burn has a pair of sweeping curves, a double cutting walled along one bank like that along the millstream in Binscarth plantation - upstream there is another cutting slightly east of a line from (Upper) Bigswell to Dow(a)scarth/Dowsgarth. Signs of restoration are evident in the multifarious kinds of stone used. One rectangular red block near the base catches my eye, having two semi-circular cuts along the bottom edge like half a pair of stocks upside-down. Strange. It is at this point that Claire has to go back for the quiet man, who has obviously made the most of his time here for photography. After a while he is found and we wend our way froward once more. Eventually the path comes to the western end of the plantation and you either go up to the Bigswell road or return whence you came - I don't think we did the full trail ourselves. Nobody slowed to look at the orchids. I know they are over-common this year, still...

Despite the hiatus the trip is well up on time. So as the nurse is only here until Friday it is decided to take her up into Sandwick for a "brilliant" view of Skaill bay. Unfortunately it is a while since the driver had been this way and we missed a nearer road to Skaill and ended up going by one further along the way to Birsay. We stopped at the parish church[? Mobisyard] and got out.
East of the road near the Burn of Rin (Ringan=Ninian) is the recently excavated Viking longhouse mound next to Castle of Snusgar - except that the excavators found that the latter went out of use in mediaeval times and there is a 19thC reference to seeing the building near the coast from a coach. My bet for the site of that building is the Lenahowe/Linnahowe mound with a top to bottom rectangular cut next the high southern end. Today the mound is camouflaged by innumerable clumps of herbage. In front of the church a small circular road runs round a high enclosure [? Mobhisland/Moarisland], close to whose south end Viking graves were found - if it were not for the fact that the Skaill Hoard is reported as found on the Castle of Snusgar by the Burn of Rin then I would have placed its findspot about here.
A 'drain' runs beside the west side of the kirkyard, and after the kirkyard corner there is above the west bank a long wall of bonnie white stone stones and blocks. From here I can see the Knowe of Verron on the horizon. This is a broch that (?later) found use for iron-making. If not here then abouthands going back to a streamlet is the traditional site for St Lawrence stook [stouk 'prebend'] and monastery, with large stones covering an acre almost of which some were used in building Lenahowe farmhouse. There are the most glorious waves bedazzled with sun on both sides of the Bay of Skaill. Some climb up the Hole o' Row only to fall back upon themselves. I head over to the kirk to try once more to find the well. Still no luck. Making my way oot the kirkyard I see by the gate a heart-shaped box. No, no. Block carved into a large heart. Surprised this hasn't gone the way of the broch's furnace base, half-inched in the middle of the excavations !!

Owing to the time lost being lost Claire didn't take us via Twatt kirk to give the nurse that c**p photo-op. Back in Kirkwall, expecting a final 'word', we wait on our guide. No to hanging on she says. I think of folIowing the others inside but I feel tremendously hot and sticky. Would love to socialise except I feel as if I would slip clean out of my claes into a pile on the floor.

Labels: Battle of Summerdale, Bigswell, Castle of Snusgar, Earl of Caithness, Happy Valley, Lord Sinclair, St Lawrence Stook, Stone of Odin

STENNESS MAY 17th 2010

A propos holed stones in Stenness the earliest reports are of two sentinel stones along the shore either side of the southern end of the Bridge of Brodgar, of a height on a par with the Stones of Stenness, with one of them holed. The earliest labelling of these is of a "stone of power" (Watch Stone) and a "stone of sacrifice" (the Odin Stone it would seem). Pococke shows the latter as a large diamond-shaped boulder but that is because part of the base is hidden - John Clevely in 1772 depicts the Stone of
Odin on a mound. It looks not unlike an erratic boulder like the Odin's Stone in Shapinsay, similar in having a shore location and a tradition of sacrifice (victims dedicated to him were hung as he hung himself to himself to snatch up the runes) but 14' high !
There are two items relating to the stone. The more familiar of these is that relating to betrothal. First the woman on her knees would plight her troth at (what the we now call) the Stones of Stenness, then the man at (what the we now call) the Ring of Brodgar, then the pair sealed the bargain by holding right hands through the Stone of Odin. Before all this they drank the sacred water of Bigswell [on Midsummer Eve a bonfire was lit above Bigswell]. And at Beltain the ill walked sunwise, deosil, about the well before they too drank the waters. Sick children were bathed in it then were taken for further rites at the Stone of Odin. Treatment for epilepsy and mental complaints was more vigorous, being first plunged in it and then left all night tied to a post [makes me wonder about the stake that marks, or used to, the site of the Kethesgeo standing stone - did it actually pre-date the loss??].
We have a late story of one ailing woman who had to make a pile of smaller stones in order to be able to lay her head in the hole. This seems at odds with the man who remembered looking through it as a boy, which is easier to understand if there were two holed stones to match the description of these coming either five or three foot up. And it would be much easier to make sense of the drawings if the name is not indigenous, so that opinions differed as to which it was. Though all but one show the stone about midway up and next to an edge, it is shown as a doublet and a singleton and with the top edge slanting up or down. Mindst you, only one pic shows it as an actual oval. Unfortunately Lady Stafford's drawing is the exception that shows a hole much lower down and placed halfway across instead of next to an edge - and the stone's top is angle to boot. Either it is the only true depiction or it is the nameless holed stone as located by Pococke. Many authors place the Stone of Odin close to NE of the mound but Thomas' informant places it 150 yards to the north and even Marwick's scaling from what he thinks an accurate plan cannot place it there [though if Pococke had been in error rather than dismiss him entirely he does mention a pillar 50 yards NE of the other cicle] - he gives ~92m N of Stones of Stenness by 76m SE of the Watch Stone. Or maybe we up the ante to three holed stones ? Don't think so.
The other images do give a broad outline of its later history if you ignore their published sequence. As the second sentinel stone it is described in 1693 (with the Watchstone) as of a similar size to the stones in the circle and so shown in Pococke. Which means that subsequently it had to have been reduced to roughly half its original size, and indeed a short time later Low gives it as a "pretty broad stone, probably broke from its original height". At about this time the stone is shown as what I would call a doublet, a stone of two halves of which one is that recognisable as the named Stone Of Odin. The hole is towards the split/join with the nearby edge worn away in a curve, probably by the plighting pair steadying themselves on the mound. In 1772 Walden depicts the Stone of Odin as one stone but with another laid flat by it with a wrecking bar and a shallow hole. This is either the moment the two were reduced to one or a time when a plane of the now singleton had been split off. All of which means that before its virtual destruction in 1814 (tho William Wilson still speaks of the two sentinels as late as 1842) it had aleady been the subject of attrition for 30-50 years.

Regarding the holed stone in Pococke in 1806 Lady Stafford draws a large holed stone and a year later Neil talks of a single stone of of great size, by which time the accepted Stone of Odin had been reduced in size to 8' for at least three decades. This stone tapers slightly out from the bottom and has an angled top, it is cleft from top to bottom along the plane and has the hole along the central axis near the base. Unfortunately PSAS CVII only shows the stone and not the entire drawing, so perhaps some archaeologist is laughing up his sleeve at me now [join in please]. Like many early antiquarians Pococke gives no proper names for his sites and so does not call this the Stone of Odin as imagined by some (in 1703 Brand likens the shape of the two circles to the sun and moon, and though by 1716 Martin Martin refers to them as the Temples of Sun and Moon the Bishop of Ossory does not, and it is a little later still that these names are alluded to as being local). I had thought to simply drop Pococke's measurements onto the map but that would require firstly one 1:10,000 or larger and secondly whether he used as a reference the edge of the henge or only the circle itself. So instead I would find the stone fragments by the field line, assuming them to lie close together where the stone was destroyed, note where this was and then go into the next field to that place and then follow the compass west to see if I could find any trace of his SE stone. Ah, sheep in the way in both fields.
Coming towards the bridge looking over the Stenness loch for seals I thought there were none. Then over my shoulder one of the rocks in the water bowed up, they're very good at that for seals are the original recumbents. Only the one. At the bridge decided to look for evidence of the second sentinel, so walked down onto the eastern shore. Surprised to find another line of stepping stones shining in the loch. Longer than the one from the north end of the bridge and having a kink along its length. Could the causeway have taken a turn or is it part of the old ford. Well, it is at about a right angle to the other and both end abruptly, so more questions than answers. Moving in I saw that the land end has no gaps and rather than flags with seperation they are something modern[-looking] with chips in. Perhaps placed end over end as the waters rose past the original construction. Curiouser and curiouser. No resolution in sight.
At one point taking pictures by standing on a very small mound, 18" high say, on the shore. Seems to be sand underneath and has to be recent I think. Then there's a fence coming to the shore just before where a jutty-out bit is shown on Pococke beyond with the stone is depicted. Over the other side a quietly sleepy lamb is half-hidden in the grass alone right until I point to shoot, when lambikins goes back to mum. Looking further along the shoreline I can see small stones and plenty of fragments over a several yard stretch, reminding me of how in 1814 stones were "shivered to pieces". Certainly enough to have come from a reduction of the second sentinel stone. Should be further back from the shore perhaps, but the loch could well have risen since (would explain the 'disappearance' of the Clovy Knowes - either underwater or swamped). Looking not far round the coast there are folk at the Barnhouse Settlement - is there a connection ?

At the north end of the bridge I can finally take photos of the swan resting on her nest by the west side, having chosen not to disturb her last time as she was on alert. Stepping back along the bridge I startle a small critter. Twice had her in my sights only for it to disappear down a hole. Read later that Orkney Voles are very common about Brodgar. Comes down to their Neolithic travels I imagine - they are found nowhere else in Britain and their nearest kin [now] are in the Iberian Peninsula and, IIRC, North Africa. Still not sure of my leg so went along the road and took coastal track from Brodgar Farm (trying to decide if any of the present structures is the feolh [turf-built] cottage of an early account).
After a little while thought I would track the shoreline instead. Had thought to be dry keeping tight to the edge only to find even some of that squishy underfoot. In a few places the shore is level for several metres and probably extended further even in the last few centuries. Though Stenness loch is brackish there are patches of flag [wild yellow iris] by the shore. Skylark and twite singing sweetly in the bright light, even posing on posts a long as I don't overstep the bounds. On my way I find one genuine orthostat standing, a coule of feet high and presumably from a pre-modern boundary. Finally get to the Fairy Well for slides and video. A very unassuming nature in her present state, slightly more wellspring than wellhead. But I think it may give some idea of how the well at Fresh Howe would have looked before her canalisation. Back onto the path and by the west end look over to Salt Knowe. From here I see a tall silhoutte just to its right, one of the stones of the Ring of Brodgar. A couple of ladies are sitting on the top, having a chat or a picnic. You think of the mound as cicular but from here as it sits on the skyline there is a distinct trailing of to the southern side, like a computer mouse.

My final target is an odd one. On Thomas map he has a dot at the E end of the Stenness-Sandwick parish boundary. Not a mound, simply a black dot where the fields end. The parish boundary is behind the car park. But I never was much good at
making out maps and waliking the shore find myself coming up to the long line of Sand Holm. There are swans swimming about the islet and a couple nesting. Sit down and have a rest, take some general pictures and try to get my bearings. Looking behind me I see an erect stone with a slanted top and wonder if this could be Pococke's pillar NE of the Ring of Brodgar. Can't tell where it is on the map. Climb up onto a track and head back. Certainly nothing obvious where the fence ends at the shore before the car park area. Just offshore here there is a magnificent flag pavement, even better than the one next the Ness of Brodgar site, and I wonder if fine flat stones from here were traded for the big beggars that make up the circle. A whimsy.
The straightish leg into the Harray loch is the present boundary. There are large flags and other stones along it. The next neck is more curved and is an older boundary, perhaps the other end of the Dyke of Sean. Same kind of makeup here except
slightly neater and there is rather large flag cutting across the neck so I can't help but wonder if there had been a structure here (HY29461363) as suggested for the Seean's west end. Carefully walking across it I gain a different perspective on Fresh Knowe and the "plumcake-shaped mound". Last time I photographed the Plumcake Mound in doing my usual perambulation my feet gave me the distinct impression that there was stuff going on around the outside. From the parish boundary there's a suspicious 'cropmark' at the northern side towards you. Could the mound have been even larger once. Is it a significant depression. Is it purely natural. It is just suspicious to me, old worrywart that I am. At the back of the car park is a modern mound and from the top of it the old and new boundaries (HY294137) look to form a very artificial looking set of pincers, even more so than that at the Bridge of Brodgar.

Coming towards the junction with the main road there is a clean space in the fieldwall on the left that surely has to date back to the pennylands, though strain as I might the field here is a blank canvas, with no other clues to Habreck. Looking across to the kirk road I think I can see a slighter gap that could relate to old Barnhouse. Saw the bus coming and yet if I had been able to run I would have missed it by a gnat's whisker. Not wanting to wait another hour I started off again after a few minutes rest.
Passing the kirk road as I come up to the 'drain' that has taken the place of the top section of the Muckle Burn of Stenness there is a distinct hillock smack beside it. Damn if it ain't the site of Cringloo, not only a 'small hillock' but also 'a flat meadow by the water' - a mighty fine kenning. By the time I reach Tormiston Mill there's still half an hour before the bus even leaves Stromness so I keep on, probably to the amusement of two young ladies by the Maeshowe gate (who are wearing pitch-black glasses as if it were the Sahara). I'm always planning to mark out where the burnt mounds etc are on the N side of the road as otherwise I'm at a loss. Plenty of examples of uneven pastures where burns run or ran either side of the road. You've got to hand it to intelligent folk who can tell the archaeological from the natural when the likes of the Vikingr would use whatever came to hand, building into natural slopes, depositing in already ancient sites, thrusting cists into glacial moraines. Eventually I arrive at the Dounby road juction where two older tourists await the bus at the shelter. From here I can look up to the north and see the Buckle Tower, a giant version of the conical stone cairns such as you find at the Cuween Hill quarry. It was built by a herdie boy of that name in the 19th century [rather apt as buckle is Orcadian for cover (like a shield-boss)]. It is a puzzle how he did it until you find out Buckle left stones sticking out the way for steps and then finished by snapping them off at then as he came back down. Air like an oven at the bus shelter with only a notional breeze outside of it. Could possibly have reached Finstown before the bus caught me up but no sense pushing my luck.

Labels: Stenness boundary, Stone of Odin

Twice I have opted to go from the Stenness parish kirk through the fields to the Stones of Stenness but instead had to follow the fence running NE-SW south of it. And each time I have looked at the stump of the old field wall that this follows. Apart from this both times I have cause to note several large stone fragments near the line that aren't from a wall and each time have mistakenly looked for a gate or other entrance. Now I have the explanation because Pococke's location for a holed stone, 124 yards west of a stone 18 yards south-east of the circle. Further I identify this with the stone depicted by Lady Stafford : tall and shaggy, cleft from the top to ground level, having an angled top (not slanted) and with a central hole near to the base. It is even possible that Dr.R.Henry's description of the stone having a hole 3' up, rather than five, is a reference to this rather than a lapsus pennae.I believe it to have been possibly the size and even age of the Watch Stone
So there were two holed stones near the Stones of Stenness. Of the sentinel stones in Pococke's drawing along the shore the one (?'stone of sacrifice') that isn't the Watch Stone ('stone of power') is described as having a stone in the middle of it. It is roughly diamond shaped and matches well with the stone doublet of Stanley's 1789 drawing (admittedly the latter is a shade more rectangular). Walden's map of 1772 shows a single stone, but this is shown as having just been cleaved in two and the other half of the doublet could be the stone lying flat under the breaking instrument but is more likely from this Stone of Odin. If the former was this heaved out of the shallow hole shown or is that the result of an excavation having taken place ? A hundred and fifty yards N of the stones brings it close to the shore as Pococke shows [~HY30671275], near where Odin Cottage is now.

Labels: Odin Stone, Stone of Odin