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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.
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EAST HOLM November 5th 2011
I took the St Margaret's Hope bus as far as the first of the Churchill Barriers. The full name of Holm parish is Holm and Paplay, and basically East Holm is Paplay 'place of the priests'. Lamb Holm (earlier Laman, perhaps as in Lamaness) is included as part of Holm. I considered crossing the barrier to have a look at the eroding ancient settlement in the low 'cliff' to see what has changed since my last 'inspection', but through the mist the tide appeared too high for safety. There is a traditional site of an RC church (quarried away) marked as by the WWII camp remains. 'Popish' can mean any pre-Reformation church so I would like it to instead be close to that settlement - there are the scant footings of a few ancient structures on the ground in the vicinity.
Turning away from the barrier I took the road that heads up to the War Memorial junction. Here is one of those marvellous places where the tide playing over the polished pebbles causes a lovely swooshing sound on the forward and backward strokes, a splendid susurru. Before the Graemes established Graemeshall the area was known as Meil 'sand'. Most likely this was for the portion of beach called the Sand of Graemeshall (though I should point out there had been a sand pit on the other side of the road and burn from Mass Howe I can't think of a fortune being made from sand in the mediaeval period). Uphill to the north there is still the large the Muir of Meil to carry on the name, but as there is a place called Hestimuir 'horse moor' I would suggest this might have been the original name of that moorland.
Crossing over the burn I see the cliff path is now, after a few additions, termed the Graemeshall Trail. At the start there is now a contrived patch of water-worn pebbles for footing but these are, as the saying has it, slippery when wet. I'm not sure they improve the grip therefore. Good job the path reverts after the pebbles! At the far end the trail turns uphill and takes you past the west end of Newark. This strait piece runs tightly between three wellsprings, and even though these are no longer running above ground it is no surprise that this part of the track was thoroughly sodden. And in between the trails beginning and end there is at least one hollow that requires careful crossing.
From the stones the path climbs slowly up. Below you is a stretch of shore whose name Bowan brings to mind Viking farm names Bu/Bow. However in this case the element bow is Orcadian for rocks breaking up waves. On the 1st 6" map has the legend saltings nearby. The mound immediately to the right is Mass Howe, which name is taken to refer to a church. The scant remains of stone on top are said to be it, except that the 1st O.S. marks the traditional site in the field behind. In any case this was most likely the Graemeshall chapel's precursor because an early work mentions as well as the parish kirk (St Nicholas') a chapel, and the parish kirk never moved. I am still of the opinion that here Mass=moss, as ecclesiastic connections give such names as maesigate/mecigate. On the north side of the field lies a track called Mass Road that bears off from the modern road a little ways up from the burn. I currently believe that the supposed mass road was to aid visitors to Hestakelda 'horse well' above. Where this old way departs from the modern road there had been a stone by the outside of the elbow - I must remember to seek it out sometime (if it remains). A possible alternate suggestion is that this is part of an antient boundary [for what it's worth NW of Newgreen (just left of the 02 on the present 1:25,000) there had been another stone next to the SE corner of the field containing a well]. The Paplay kirk has always been St Nicholas Church, explaining why the Vikings appear not to have used the broch under the graveyard there for defence.
Next along a large field contains well-preserved wartime buildings, the remains of WWII Holm Battery and Accomodation Camp and some from WWI. You come across the camp first as you enter. As the field had been trampled recently by kie I tried to tread as light as possible. There is a great variety of structure and form here, from Nissen Huts (engine houses) to underground 'bunkers' (e.g. at the far end the WWI magazine under the obs' post), in a smaller space than (say) Rerwick Head Battery. Also present are gun emplacements from both wars, some plain buildings that might have been storage shed, a fire command post and a tall building that is the battery observation post. It is the last that draws the attention, part of a tiny complex including a gun emplacement and crew quarters. Though my interest in the wars is marginal I could still have spent far longer here with my camera than the hour I did! Two twelve-pounder gun emplacements in the far bottom corner of the site are curiously connected by a sinuous open-top channel, big enough for a man to walk along in a crouch. Perhaps a protected crawlway ?? Returning I went back to the path near to where I entered. Right on the coast are several searchlight emplacements. Looking around the one virtually at the cliff edge there are two lumps of rusting machinery, one of whch looks like a winch. Then on the seaward side I saw some planks across another channel facing onto the cliffs. Even after taking the wood off for a moment I couldn't really tell if this came from the searchlight or was purely to divert a wellspring from the foundations. Put the planks back to keep animals from falling in.
When I came back I found a well-illustrated 58-page A4 spiral bound book by Jeff Dorman called "Orkney Coast Batteries 1914-18" that has all the plans for these and armament illustrations. At only £5 I was surprised that there were still copies left, but these only in Spence's newsagents rather than the publisher's outlet (the Orcadian Bookshop). In this the two putative storage sheds on another page are marked as magazine buildings I think. This is part of another, smaller, battery called Holm/Clett. But even he looks to have missed a multi-sided foundation on the end of a spur directly opposite the Tower of Clett. With the increasing interest in Orkney's fortifications it would be nice for another expert to tackle the inland wartime remnants. Personally I think a good choice for research would be the WWII radio and radar stations. they might be easier to neglect. For instance alongside what I think of as the Tradespark road, actually Heather Loan, Pastmap indicates a radio station (HY40NE 33) pointed out on a Luftwaffe reconnaisance as being behind the houses. There are some parts just protruding but the best surviving part of the 'Mayfield Cottage' radio station lies in a small field at the sharp angle junction of Heathery Loan and the Greenvale track (HY45440881), away from the main part. Another half-submerged almost bunker-like building with the barely protruding bits of something else going away from it.
In the same field is a wellspring with the Tower of Clett 'burnt mound'. But as the latter survives very low all we can be sure of is that it is a mound remnant with some burnt material in an off-centre lump. Last time I thought this lump was the entire mound. Easy to understand when no diameter is given. This time I went more carefully over the boggy ground and could feel the stones under my feet at several places around what I think is the periphery and were of seemingly different form at each place. Anyways, what the 1st O.S. shows here is simply a stream line with a watery ellipse about halfway along that looks anomalous to me at the moment. Where this meets the coast the path goes into a shallow but steep sided hollow that can trip you up by making you go too fast over obstructions that I think cover the springwater. Had a closer look at the structure at the back of the dip just outside the field [HY49480164] and cleared away the covering vegetation as much as I dared. It is cuboid, with the long side facing the cliff being over half-a-dozen courses of fractured stone. I could expose three good courses of the south end. At the north end I had previously seen one erect stone but beneath the grass I found a couple of fallen slabs, either a similarly coursed wall or fallen orthostats. There doesn't seem to have ben a front to it. As to a 'floor' all I could tell is that there is corrugated iron over something - I didn't want to get that messy! My thought was that this is the remains of a well with metal covering it when it went out of use. It seems likely that the stone came from the mound up the hillside. Close by Pastmap shows a burial Raymond Lamb found at the cliff edge, HY40SE 17 near Rami Geo at HY49480160. Alack there is no digital image and I'm not forking out for one of the photos on my money. Mystery, ah !
Along from Rami Geo facing a field junction a spur of land points to the Tower ( The path section back up to the main road is very soggy, grass soaking the boots. However it gives me shots of ground-hugging thistles with their dew-bedecked leafy rosettes, some shining silver and others gossamer with pearls of water webbing
them. At the top a new gate lets you into the field having the sundial mound. Not what the phrase would bring to mind this, being a (?) natural mound with a stone arrangement on top. I assume some form of gnomon to have been removed in the early
20th century. Could other sundial sites on the 1st O.S. also have been of this type. In Overbrough in Harray there were two sundials marked, both associated with a church and a broch though only the church on the definite broch is pre-modern in origin. You only cross a few yards of the field before you are confronted by the recent stile that lets you up onto the main road. It is even trickier than those on the Inganess trail, like it has been made for giants. This looms before you and when you gain the top and turn it is as if the pole were a bucking bronco trying to throw you off sideways. With great trepidation I stopped myself being swung round back into the field !
Passing the Hurtiso ('Thornstein's mound') junction that takes you up to St.Andrew's parish the next juncture is at the edge of the height overlooking the rest of East Holm. This farm is Vigga from vígi 'small defensive site', that is small as compared to Castle (castali) Howe that is - for some reason the Vikings appear not to have used the broch now under St. Nicholas graveyard, unless already ecclesiastic by then. However Hugh Marwick says the meaning of the farm-name Vigga as unknown and normally vígi>wick I think. Could perhaps be an error for Bygga ? On the downhill side the boundary wall is curved. So I grew excited on seing a small niche in this. Took a couple of photos and realised later from the red lines that this is where a postbox had been !!
Just shows the value of taking pictures of everything that captures your eye at the time it captures the eye. Coming down to the church I had the opportunity to turn right onto a path to take me the rest of the way.along the cliffs. Didn't though on a short winter's day. Where the road levels the bridge carrying the road at Wester Sand is more complex than necessary for this, perhaps there has been a mill in the vicinity with the pool behind the church possibly a millpond rather than for fish as I previously thought.
Opposite the kirk is a taing called Canniesile. On the side towards me the long flat face of a stone flashed silver. Looked man-made. Then I looked across the rock and several more such stones flashed in the sun. For an instant I could imagine these as the outer edges of some antique foundations, then I realised I was seeing an illusion caused by the low sun's gleam. On the north side of the church is a chimney having two different widths set on top of one another rather than gradually aprioaching one another, topped by a fluted central pediment (I think that is right). In the top half of this side of the kirk are two tall arched recesses, half in the space of the crow-step gable and half the walls. These must have been windows but now are blocked off on the inside by earth red painted wooden panels. The vehicle gateways are framed on the way in by coursed stone which merely abuts the kirkyard wall and so is probably later. Very reminiscent of St Lawrence in Burray without the gates ! Coming through one I went around the east side to have a look at the hut by the kirkyard wall. Nothing of interest there to me. The 1st O.S. shows a well directly behind St Nicholas Church in the field. This would explain the small circular feature that lay there. Like as not this also provides a context for the artefacts that I found after the deep ploughing a few years back. Does the wall serve to mark this falling (or being pushed) into disuse ?
Heading towards Rose Ness I only went about as far as the top of the St Nicholas Manse track before turning back instead of continuing to North Howe cairn. Along the way I looked longingly at Castle Howe, a Viking fort that probably started of as a broch. It seems strange that there is not another broch on the ness itself, the nearest on Mainland being at Dingieshowe, but the seaways are guarded by the several that gave their name to the island of Burray. It lies by the other end of the narrow bay from the St Nicholas broch. You can walk along the shore and then carefully pick your way across. Other than that you can approach the seaward side along an old track. You do have to pick your way along fallen fences, however at this time what put me off was the thought of wading through sodden grass not knowing this hid and mebbe slipping a lot. From it to the road is a curving rise. This is much more obvious looking back from further along. It would be nice if this rise were part of a larger settlement. Unfortunately Orkney is one of those places where it is often difficult to divine the natural from the man-made. On the one hand Orcadians used nature's mounds as part of their monuments or for burying stuff and on the other settlements and artificial hills get taken over by nature (often buried in their turn). Ducrow looked quite nice with the smal trees protecting the front of the farmhouse. A man with a dog was looking after stock on the hillside.I thought about going to the castali from the roadside fields except that on a short day becoming engrossd there would steal time from it.
Returning to the church a road runs up from the south corner of the kirkyard wall and has two kinks before reaching the next junction. On the inside of the first kink the wall angle is filled by one of Orkney's triangular flat-topped stone piles. It has only just now struck me now that this is more than likely the Orcadian version of a stone clearance cairn. Opposite the second kink is I think the ruination of a wartime building. However if so it has subsequently become a dumping ground for the debris of other buildings. The field on the inside of this kink has been used by the water board. Only after coming back home did I find that this is the location of the Tieve Well. And the road is called Tieve Road (presumably from the well rather than vice versa). In Irish tieve means 'hillside' and you would reckon that it had been the original route to the church before the modern road from Vigga direct. But Gaelic is only suspected in the South Isles rather than a definite fact, and even there its use is doubted by most. Pity. Marwick says unknown origin but a later writer derives it from Old Norse tave 'overflowing', hence muddy or boggy ground.
At the top end of the road I turned right and went over to Upper Bu in order to gain a better view of Greenwall. Greenwall is the traditional site of a Franciscan monastery hence ?Paplay. The resemblance between the storehouse here and that in St. Mary's is because the owners of Greenwall later took over Meil (building Graemeshall there). But this is far bigger and I already wondered if it had been a tithe barn before I re-found the monastery connection with Greenwall. Upper and Nether (now Lower) Bu, nearby, were originally the Bow of Scale, Earl Erland's bu farm. The current verdict is that we should read this as 'the Bu called Skaill'. Pastmap shows a stone south of Braehead (?Fea) W of Upper Breckquoy, and two beside the road S and ESE of Upper Bu.
I wonder if these might have marked the boundary between the areas of Paplay and Grenewall ?? Later Greenwall became a grange by the inclusion of the Bow and other places. I never knew before that Orkney had granges. Coming around to the front of the relatively modernised main house I see it glowing a pale biscuit in the fading sun. The slightly off-centre doorway is a portico topped by an equilateral triangle. This is of modest size but no less impressive for that. The second floor windows start at the tip. There is a pleasing asymmetry to all the windows and the front also has a small building attached at the left. The high-sided roof covers a third floor and has a chimney either end. The two-tone effect is probably because narrower and lighter lower portion has been cleaned and repointed when the modern windows were put in. The whole frontage is awfu' bonnie.
I would like then to have gone up the tracks and peedie roads to Muckle Ocklester so that I could come down past the modern church to look for the possible features I'd glimpsed after ploughing before coming back to the Hurtiso junction. I wonder if 'Thorstein's Mound' has a connection with the Lyking Viking burial found near Upper Hurtiso or possibly even with the hood found "off the moss of Hurtiso". But the clouds meant dusk would arrive early so I instead carried straight over to Vigga. Not many metres to the north is what amounts to a small viewpoint from where you can look down on the land from St Mary's to Burray. Here I took several photos of the dying sun's rays across Holm Sound when I became aware of a lady getting out of a car behind me. As she came closer I recognised a social worker I had known. I showed her how the sun in throwing a ray of light over the sea towards us cast its dark brightness over the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm. There being no more to be usefully done I accepted her offer of a lift back to Kirkwall where I did my shop before going home.
1) Since this walk I went again to the site of St Nicholas Chapel in Evie. Until the 18th century this was the parish church. In this I believe it took over from the Knowe of Desso (aka Denshow), where George Petrie trenched out a blue slate cross-slab. This is in the same style as the Papa Stronsay cross, which came from another chapel dedicated to St Nicholas. Add this to the Holm church and that once standing by the Round Church in Orphir, similarly dedicated parish churches, and you get a strong feeling that in Orkney [and some places elsewhere ?] a dedication to St Nicholas shows where an early (or early Viking at least) kirk had been built. Too much of a coincidence otherwise methinks !
2) The second thing I have learned since then is that what appears to be an ancient tradition of the healing properties of dew from certain places is that this is a displacement, that originally the curative was well water before this became thought superstitious. On Wideford Hill in St Ola there is a day of the year when lassies run up the hill for the first morning dew. If we look instead for a well there is only one on the whole thing. This is just near Blackhill. I knew it to be special from the first time that I saw it. A big bowl-shaped depression at HY423114 with the remains of a wall at the wellspring side (though on the 1:25,000 the W is shown further up the field edge). I think it once held more water - when the reservoir was built they initially had a problem with a leak or overflow from water elsewhere, probably explaining the pipe that has been inserted at some time.
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DESSO TO MISTRA November 12th 2011
After the Out and About to Gurness it proved necessary to go back for a more leisurely photographic documentation of the broch and Viking settlement that had been buried beneath the Knowe of Aikerness. Inside the broch tower I found at least a couple of 'objets trouvé', being slabs with petrified mud tracks over them. One of these had at the top a rayed sun simulacrum, a most delightful find. Coming up from the Point of Hellia I finally spotted the Knowe of Desso. Like many early Orcadian kirks it had been built by water, a burn in this instance. At first all I saw was a small pointy mound, then another angle showed a long depression attached to this. In 1852 the Knowe of Desso (a.k.a. Denshow) was trenched by George Petrie, who found a 4' by 2'6" by 2" blue slate slab incribed with a cross in the style of the Papa Stronsay cross (which came from an early chapel dedicated to St Nicholas like the former Orphir and Holm parish churches). However perusing the map I may have seen the site other than where marked by others (though if so this would not be the first time one has been 'mis-placed'). At any rate I did capture it in low light, and there is a connection later.
Following the track alongside the Bight of Bundy there are several grassy hollows. At first I only felt curiosity, but after climbing down I was gratified to see that these were nausts for hauling up boats into. The NMRS doesn't mention boat nousts but there is a record for old winches that may relate. A heron took flight from who knows where and passed close by before settling on the Sands of Evie. Coming to the PC I prowled around looking for old bridges/culverts to little avail. Then on the southern side of the small building now used by fishermen I spotted drystone walling. And when I came closer these were part of a pair of obvious nausts, with most of the stone walls still surviving. These appear slightly smaller than the grassy ones seen earlier and I think are relatively modern.
A few skeins of geese flew overhead. By now the twilight held full sway and even the nearer of the broch mounds stood barely visible. So I took the path up to the main road. Along the way I turned right and took the broad track to the older graveyard. I still find that straight pile of stones by the entrance, the same white as those of the graveyard itself, highly intriguing. I climbed in over the devil's gate, slowing down coming down the other side to avoid slipping, and decided on a counter-clockwise perambulation in order to peer back out over the wall where a large linear mound of soil and refuse lies against it ahint the stone pile. Placing my hand on the wall I felt a snapped off stone and found that there had been another devil's dyke on this side of the entrance just as with South Ettit Kirk. Outside the next wall there were a few stones that looked to have been brought up by the plough but went as far as the soil pile where there appeared to be a few dark slabs sticking out. In the graveyard I saw a narrow linear depression that didn't match any gravestone - I nioticed several other miscellaneous anomalous depression elsewhere as I went around. A most peculiar thing is that most places along the walls there are stones that lie across the tops and project somewhat beyond the line. Most exciting of all is that there is another devil's gate near the NE corner which I somehow missed on my previous visit - and it seems that its lowest stone had been either level with the graveyard mound's surface or even below this. Fortunately my camera's flash proved up to the job of filming it. Jo Ben said that the mounds in this area were often seen playing host to mysterious lights. The graveyard is the site of St Nicholas chapel. This "poor small house in Stenso" had a thatched roof renewed every year. Sometime before 1778 it fell into disuse, and then one Sunday shortly after 1788 the walls themselves collapsed. On the odd occasions when a new grave is dug foundations have been known to disturb the spade.
The farmtrack has not always been there. On the first 25" O.S. a track comes straight up fom the shore to the NE corner where the third devil's gate is, then goes around to snake into the present entrance whilst going up to a field edge and across to where the path down to the beach bends. The map also shows a rectangular structure central to the graveyard and a smaller square one in the SE corner. It is a safe hazard that the formerly upstanding remains of these now form part of the linear mound and the stone pile respectively. I think also that St Nicholas chapel took its dedication from the Knowe of Desso [though you could possibly argue Dens = St Denys] when this went out of use. The physical connection between kirk and graveyard has not always been. Earlier there could be several hundred yards between the two like there could between kirk and kirkhouse 'priest's house' (as with Houton). So it is not beyond the bounds that this was first an outlying burial ground - there is still a ford to the north of the Knowe of Desso. Both could have lain along the course of the Man's Body. St Magnus body was brought onto Mainland south of the Point of Aikerness. Two places spring to mind, the Noust of Aikerness and the Port of Aikerness. The first is north of Aikerness (near the field end S of Reeky Knowes) and the second to the south (just ENE of the Howea Breck legend on the 1:25,000 map). My bet's on the former.
When I reached the main road there was still an hour before the bus. Fortunately unlike one small shop in Kirkwall the Mistra is open until six, so I had a cherryade to drink and a trurkish delight bar to eat and saved myself going to Tesco by buying a pint of milk. Anyway, it is always nice to take a gander around a new shop you come across or even one where I haven't been for many a year lke Mistra. Continued north on the road, then took pics of a golden moon on Rousay's skyline from the war memorial before heading back. Great relief on finding the bus shelter (I have a poor memory). Sat and saw the full moon swiftly and visibly rise until she hid her face behind a veil of cloud. For the most part the sky remained bright and clear. High up one of the planets twinkled at me throughout and after. Probably Venus. Not very good at night colour I had for a while confused this with Mars until this gleamed a more obvious red to my left, low over Dale. Better to be too early than too late I walked onto the verge opposite after the bus left uphill. Now I could see some stars - not many but enough to dazzle. High up above me the W of Cassiopeia shone bright on her throne. Over to my left the Great Bear's plough had an immense presence, Callisto superlarge this night. The cold was well worth the visions but I was glad to climb aboard the bus at long last.
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A true relation of 'The Orkney Hood'
This twill hood is RCAHMS NMRS record. no HY50NW 21, find site unlocated. Anderson in 1883 thought it to be a Viking piece, as have others since. In the NMAS 1892 Catalogue (National Museum of the Antiquaries of Scotland, now the National Museum) this is described as prchased from Petrie's collection in ? 1867 and found in ? St.Andrews [and Deerness] parish. A.S. Henshall in 1954 compares it to a tablet-band found in County Antrim in 1893. The last piece on HY50NW 21 still attributes it to St.Andrew's only sometime before 1867, and cites a radio-carbon derived date of between about AD 250 and 615 i.e Broch Age or late Pict.
All of which goes to show why it is of vital import that newspaper articles need to be part of the record. For a few days after the hood was found in 1863 the location is given as in the moss off Hurtiso in Holm (6' down under five peat layers). In 1877 the same newspaper finds it in Petrie's collection with the parish Kirkwall [and St Ola] which is the second parish from St Andrew's (as Petrie also 'misplaced' a barrow cemetery as to parish [if he has been reported correctly] this shows that even original sources aren't
beyond checking). And, lastly, in 1881 cloth found with an Orkney skeleton some 3 miles E of Dounby is compared by that newspaper to the hood. Only in this account is the location finally placed as St Andrew's parish.
When Friday's Radio Orkney announced that on The One Show that there would be an item on this they most specifically associated it with Groatster in the Tankerness tunship of St Andrew's, perhaps because its farmers have found articles deposited in the vicinity of White Moss in the northern part of their land. We can replace guesswork with the true parish where the hood was found. There are three places called Hurtiso in Orkney, but we can rule out the one in Rousay. The other two are in Holm. Upper Hurtiso is next to the extensive Muir of Meil and only a few hundred metres SE of Lyking where a Viking grave was found before 1870. More likely Hurtiso Farm (HY506105) south of this at the end of the road starting at St Andrew's school is meant. I wonder what age the church and manse to the north are because one time when I came down this road from St Andrew's to Holm in a ploughed field to their north I saw what looked to me to be the remains of a stone structure or structures. Certainly nothing could be found of the hood's site starting from the premise this was St Andrew's and Deerness.
The Hurtiso Hood is made up of three seperate pieces; hood, upper band, fringe with lower band. As these are not of equal quality it has been said that this means someone used two already existing pieces and fashioned them into what we see now. But it could also mean that the whole was a collaborative piece, whether for some social reason or as a result of specialisation (though I incline towards the former).
Orkney Herald :
May 23rd 1863 "One day last week... in the Holm district... in the moss off Hurtiso... exposed unexpectedly an ancient article of dress... This article was a short woolen cloak, finely adorned with fringes {?19} inches in length, and having a hood of the same material... This curious relic was found embedded in the moss at a depth of six feet, and under five solid layers of peat."
December 5th 1877 "in Mr Petrie's collection was a knitted woolen hood which was found in a moss in the parish of Kirkwall... which resembles in shape the old "trot cosy" of the last century... It had been done in bands, each with a seperate pattern, and round the edge is a fringe about twenty inches in depth."
May 18th 1881 "Skeleton found... while engaged in peat cutting in the hills between Birsay and Evie... The remains... that of a female of about twenty years of age. Some pieces of cloth, apparently used for wrapping the body, or part of the deceased's clothing... The strongest of the three pieces of cloth is of a peculiar woolen fabric... a close resemblance in texture and style to the hood found in a moss in the parish of St.Andrews upwards of 20 years ago.."
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NEWARK SLIP TO AIKERSKAILL August 31st 2011
Passing over the narrow strip of land seperating St. Andrew's from Deerness at the place where the first road arc gives way to the second on the RH side at the bend is the beginning of two minor roads, taking the right fork (Geo Road) takes you past Delday to the 'new' Newark jetty. Near the fork the remains on your left are of the 19thC farmhouse of Cellardyke [cellar=siller 'silver', as in Siller-a-geo, but could be named for the Fife village] with its barn. We got out at the tiny car park high up above the beach.
Everyone but me stepped gingerly over the rock formation down to the beach. I took the path instead until I came to a rivulet in full spate that brooked no crossing by only inches - the present 1:25,000 shows a ford here but the 1882 25" only shows a watery alembic shape appearing from nothing, no burn or wellspring to mark its start. Trowietown above post-dates the first O.S. and is a 'greenfield' site. The stream flows onto the beach, where it finally became passable by rushing it.
Catching up to the rest as Newark came into view I mentioned that Norse skelly-wegs had been found here. So it was decided to leave the beach and get up onto the track so as to avoid any possibility of seeing the human bones that not infrequently erode out of the cliff-face above the taing of Lee Hamar. I would have loved to find something myself but I am not sure that we could have continued safely over the rocks anyway. The track passes between the buildings that make up the present farm. Just past the ones on the south side are the archaeological remains of a "manor house" and a chapel, including what is described as a souterrain. Unfortunately since my last visit nature has rather taken over the site, so I think my fellow walkers were a little underwhelmed when I pointed it out. It is mostly below ground level and yet stands well, however vegetation now covers the floors and climbs half-way up the walls (whose tops blend into their surroundings a little too well now).
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" I also pointed out the mound of Quoyburing 'broch enclosure' a.k.a. Howie o' Backland (Backland is the name given to the taing next to Lee Hamar, possibly evidence for greater erosion than currently known of from the Newark chapel - the old Work was perhaps located at the taing) that is split by a farmtrack from Skea to the shore, though this now mostly 'drain' above there. Even on it there is little to see. The biggest piece, and the tallest surviving part, is by the west side of the track. I assume that this is where the excavation of a 3m high wall took place and the broch tower stands. There is a ditch by the north side of this. As the site covers some 0.65 hectares outbuildings are suspected, and I would place these on that part near the east side of the track where there is a pool (though this lowering could always be due to earlier excavation).
I expected us to be going on to the Point of Ayre, but our itinerary was a circular route rather than the linear walk of other guides. And since my last visit a metal gate has been installed across the track by the end of the Aikerskaill Road to control entry to the last section of the latter. Beyond here there are the scant remains of an early mediaeval settlement at Howe Geo. On the 1882 map a very thin nearly N/S rectangle is drawn and a little further east an almost E/W aligned oblong enclosure. Alas the first is much destroyed and the second has become incorporated within the broad track (which surely came after). When I went I took no notice of a line of stones across the track. Then a few yards further on another turned the lightbulb on over my head, so I turned around and the building foundations were very then much evidence, though only one of the walls stood clearly still vertical and several courses high. I could make out the doorway and discern the interior. But could I do so still or has climate change exacted its toll of the stones, obscured by turf as with many another formerly visible site ? In which case even more underwhelming to those I wished to show it, so mebbe best left to my solitary investigations alas.
Instead our route turned left up Aikerskaill Road. Barely have you started on this than it feels as if the road has reared up in front of you like a wall of tarmac. Quite steep then. Once surmounted I realised that this led to Lighthouse, the last stop of the Deerness buses. Hadn't realised Lighthouse corner lay that near. Fortunately before then we turned right onto Quoys Road past Oback (when a 19thC cottage was demolished at Quoys in 1974 very strong evidence for a Norse settlement came to light). To me my first view of Oback looked like a typical old Orcadian school, or at least the building at the western end had that architectural look. In 1882 the track preceding the road went west only went as far as entering Oback, a track coming the other way stopping well short of Oback before both were joined to make the modern road. As I looke along the road I noticed a series of hills on the twilit horizon, drawing my attention. A must-have camera moment. We continued up to the junction with the road from Glenavon and then turned right again, back to Newark. Along the way we were much taken by the array of plants filling a garden fence and growing against it. One some of us felt we recognised, with many-fingered leaves most pleasant to gaze upon, but without flowers we could not put a name to it.
As we headed down the road I saw a large dun bird flying amongst the hollows and hillocks behind Newark. My first thought was whaup. Too dark a brown for curlew though, as though the bird had been dipped in various bark mulches is the best I can describe the plumage. And again the flight wasn't that upward whippoorwhill accompanied rise and long slow glide typical of a whaup. Instead it rose in short flights and then dropped down. Finally I realised this bird was a long-eared owl looking for prey and at last finding it. I have vague recollections that these undulating features covered a settlement. CANMAP only shows the chapel site but Canmore Mapping does have a record 'dot' in the right area. Unfortunately the beta does not have an info button to direct us to that road - I wonder if this could be the 'mystery' dig I was taken to in 1986, would be so good to finally put a name to it. There is a possible mound recorded near Little Cottage, and there are similar features to those behind Newark a little east of south of Little Cottage (in a smaller area though). Could all simply be buried dunes though.
After a slight detour I joined the rest of the party on the beach. The sea had well receded now and I scurried through left behind pools to reach the new tideline. To me this is always the best part of a beach, the limin of old tide and new, province of seabirds and scatty dogs and me (and the occasional shellfisherman oot for spoots [razorshells] ). The jetty is more complicated than I thought. My attempts to climb up it were thwarted by slippery seaweeds. As I went over to a corner I spotted hard into it a small arrangement of triangular stones that must have been put there for just such a predicament. Some followed in my steps whilst others crawled over the batter of the seawall flags. On the cliff there is an art installation comprising two pieces of old machinery. Their shadowed shapes brought to mind an antique Springer sewing machine.
Back in the minibus we decided to go ahead with a meal at the Quoyburray Inn over in Tankerness (close to the St Andrew's Community Centre and the 'Mine Howe road' - I am not sure Mine Howe is open even in the tourist season except by prior arrangement now if a tourist is correct). As evening meals had only just started we had the eating section to ourselves throughout. The cauliflower I found cooked right, neither turned to mush like mine often is or nor barely cooked as at the last place we had been. The windows here provide an unusual view as the inn is sunk into the ground behind so that their bottoms are level with the track.
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Unemployed and so plenty of spare time for researching contributors' questions and queries and for making corrections. Antiquarian and naturalist. Mode of transport shanks's pony. Talent unnecessary endurance. I love brochs.
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