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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BAY OF SKAILL, SANDWICK AUGUST 18th 2011
Another trip with the Blide Trust is diverted. Twice. We are going to go on a walk that takes in Skara Brae and Quoyloo church, so I suggest the Brodgar road - just over the Black Hill of Warbuster a minor road goes above the top of the Loch of Stenness, past Lyking broch and through Voyatown, onto the B9056 then north by the Loch of Skaill with its 19thC fishing islet before reaching the Bay of Skaill. But Patrick turns at the Harray junction instead and onto Dounby. Okay, I thought, the B9057 runs through it and west into Sandwick onto the Kierfiold road then Skaill. But onward he goes and by the Loch of Boardhouse. Ah we all think, the scenic route to come upon Skaill from the heights. Except it becomes apparent Patrick is headed for Birsay. Turns out he thought today's walk was based there. So we turn left and take the back road to the Skaill kirk i.e. the B9056 by way of Marwick instead of the A967 down to the Kierfiold road - disappointed to learn the Kierfiold House gardens are under new owners and
(Sheena thinks) no longer open for public viewing. It was a brilliantly sunny evening with a crystal clear sky letting us clearly see far hills on the horizon for miles in every direction, with neither haze nor mist casting a veil over land or sea.
We parked near the Skara Brae interpretation centre as per the itinerary but didn't visit the village, not wanting to fork out the £6 each. Instead of going all along the road we went down to the beach near the far end of the HS site's fence, passing over a band of water-worn stones onto the deep sandy beach. You can see how the sea walls built to preserve the Skara Brae site are heavily eroded, see where what was once a millstream comes down - in front of the mill is where leaves and bark from a now submerged forest came, relics of the time before Skerrabrae disappeared under the sands and the settlement still thrived. After reaching the toilet block we left the beach and crossed over road verges star studded with eyebright. An old farm track passes in front of what is now called the Castle of Snusgar (excavations shew it went out of use in mediaeval times but the castle seen from a 19thC coach going along the coastline had been a building still standing. Nothing unusual to have two castles near each other in Orkney though). At a junction we turned left and had the present Snusgar excavation on our right close by the ? Burn of Rin. As we only set off from Kirkwall at four the sight of diggers still on the site surprised me, especially as I hadn't realised it was still on (this must have been the final week or two of their season, with a Viking longhouse this year's highlight.). From this section of track we had the most perfect view of the Hole o' Row at the other end of the Bay of Skaill, the whole hole fully side on. As we continued up they started leaving the hillock for their transport at Netherstove, Between here and there another track went right at a junction, and I made the mistake of thinking it not part of the itinerary [because it is even more overgrown than where we trod]. As at this point everyone took my lead it wasn't until after we turned left and hit the main road that the time discrepancy became obvious.
Going down to the parish kirk a small building on the other side of the road from this used to be a stable, unlikely though it seems. The rest of the group went by the kirkyard but I brought them back to see an unusual ornament I had seen on my last visit there, a small carved block of stone resembling a deep heart-shaped jewellery casket about a foot long. By coincidence Heart is the name of a friend of the team leader who had only just gone back to New Zealand [or Australia perhaps]. It made me think of two detached architectural pieces not dissimilarly placed at the edge of the Stenness kirkyard, though the heart-shaped box could be sepulchral instead. From here we carefully climbed down to the beach once more.
Now we changed the route and followed another member's suggestion, a walk to the modern cairn on Ward Hill. Approaching Hellia Gibb we looked up and saw the labradoodle cross that had come with us walking the narrow piece between fence and cliff-edge up above. My memory said I had taken the same route myself once, but now I think vegetation hides the way which could have also be straiter since then. Past Hellia Gibb there is now a metal rail to help you come up from the rocky taing onto the cliffs
more safely. The clifftops are mostly shattered stone and Patrick decided to walk near the edge of the first bite in the cliffs, Yettna Geo, until someone called him back from what they saw as danger - actually the worst parts of Orkney's coastline are the unnoticed overhangs, and in East Holm the huge circular Hole of The Ness is many metres back from the cliff-edge and disguised until you are almost on top of it ! Coming near myself, I was greeted by the shadowed sides of Yettna Geo gating a clear sky
blazing in the light afternoon sun between them like the portal to a land of far away. This was high summer with twilight a long time coming. So we were grateful to finally reach the solace of the modern cairn. Even the labradoodle rested.
Far to the south I saw a distant high cliff headland with a single upright pillar just offshore. I found myself in two minds because though I knew it to be one end of Hoy the name that came to me for the rock stack was the Castle of Yesnaby. Of course as soon as I spoke my identification out loud to great laughter this was corrected to the Old Man of Hoy. Which meant it took a long time before they accepted where the Yesnaby car park lay, and it can't have helped that I referred to the Brough of Bigging with its promontory fort as the Noust of Bigging (the boat naust back of its neck). Between us and the Broch of Borwick lies the long thin chasm of Ramna Geo and the Ness of Ramnageo. Between Ramna Geo and the Broch of Borwick ( a few hundred metres to the north of the latter) an Irish visitor to Orkney told me he saw what appeared to be a monastic beehive cell like those of early mediaeval Ireland. The same (or something surely related) in a 1964 newspaper account is reported as bowl-shaped with an opening at the stone-built side. It would be nice if this had been what I at first mistook fror the broch. At high mag it looks like an upturned terraced quarry or a multi-tiered cake stand. Matching the exposed rock about it I am reminded on the polystyrene landscapes we made in geography, the piled tiles cut to the map contours before we smoothed them out. But this feature by the cliff-edge is hard by the southern side of Ramna Geo, so unless the proximity is a trick of perspective this cannot be that cell. Shoot !
Eventually came the time to head off back, for despite the light by the clock eventide had indeed turned. I had been hoping to go via Skaill Home Farm (The Mount in 1882) to look at the several old foundations along the way, but the kie were everywhere. Skaill House shone ghostly below, a place much haunted by the denizens of an olden graveyard now buried beneath the house. I forgot to mention that between taing and our climb up on land again we did walk alongside the fence before the way narrowed too far. Between us and the shore we pass by the remains of some old structure, still feeling like a building but to official reports only a wall of several courses and a midden. When I finally get off the shore I'm so hot my hair is sweating and I have to go topless in order to cool down (over the next week several folk at the trust feel hotter than the rest at different times, so something going around is my guess). I am told that it is wrong to say that my hair is sweating because hair is dead. Technically true. But the sebaceous glands at the roots of your hair are alive and my hair becomes saturated by sweat. So all I am guilty of is not using the phrase "my hair is sweaty", which is nit-picking rather. Rant over ! Of course now that seatbelts are compulsory you don't have the option of leaning forward to stay cool so I perforce have to put my T-shirt back on. Much too late for a joint meal so we head back to Kirkwall. We arrive after eight, having been gone four hours.
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NESS OF BRODGAR 2011 FINAL DAYS
Took the same bus as last time. Coming up the road I ponder why it is that once you know where it straddles the fenceline the rise that is all that is left of Big Howe broch is very ovbvious and yet it is basically uncapturable by cameras. A higher tide meant no seals in the Loch of Stenness only a few swans near the bridge, but no nesting ones. By the east side the tops of submerged plantss made two ovals in the water with green 'pins'. Just below the surface that line of small slabs running from near the north end of the bridge towards Odin Cottage form a long green rectangle. Strange they do not head off to that similar but kinked line coming from the other direction. Have they been stepping stones from when the waters were much lower ? They certainly contrast with the narrow lines of dark rocks in the vicinity. I wonder if there were saltings here as there were abouthands of the Brig o' Waithe and many many other places around Orkney's coastline ? Saltings are created by making a place where the seawater can come in at high tide but is then left behind later and left to dry out in the sun to leave the salt. The same technique is used for fish traps, so perhaps an accidental 'combining' of the two is how salted fish came into being as a preserving method.
This time dinnertime really was the diggers dinner time. Which was fortunate as covering the site for next year was well in hand, with the building in the far corner already fully blanketed in black plastic. So I had a bit of a race against time to complete today's mission. Actually as far as making sense of the site is concerned it is much easier to make out the structures, especially the walls, with the plastic sheet laid on the floors ! After photographing all you would need to to do is 'photoshop' the black for a more useful colour.
Today another big deep hearth stood out. Very close to it are two large slabs on edge making a likely corner. The hearth seems a little close to be connected or respecting it (though it could mirror the hearth's far left corner). One side is a thick rectangular slab and the other is thinner and has one angled end. On the other hand the latter also looks to line up with an edge of a thick tall-ish ortostat. Both have narrow horizontal slabs by them at ground level (that at the orthostat resembling part of a standing stone socket) and another in the space between them. From the orthostat another much lower orthostat runs to the wall of a structure, and by its RH side a small paved area [?entrance] ends at another wall. In the photograph I can see a slighly angled orthostat built into the ? far wall of the structure. Of course even looking from other directions perspective might be misleading me. A diagram would help you see but this would fall under ORCA's no image edict for sure. There are at least two fallen rectangular stone near all of this, one of which might well have formed a wall with the rectangular and another abutting the angle of the corner to its left. I had a look at the drain exposed below the paved circular passage near the viewing platform. It is not much wider than a small soil pipe and bounded by a mostly thin coursed wall, though there is one stone on its long edge I can see. All over the site there are the tops of walls and fallen slabs, the latter as likely isolated as not. Unlike the north end (I can even make out the N/S baulk in one image) the view from the west end spoil heap is really a mish-mash at this stage in the cover-up.
Along the south end the tapes were gone. So I finally had a chance fror a peak from this direction, treading carefully like the seasoned digger I had been. I am particularly struck by a horizontal lang stane, virtually by itself, closely parallel to what was/is the E/W baulk about half-way along the east 'arm'. What is visible is mid-brown, five to six feet long and about the thickness of a brick wall course. The long edge facing me seemed to have a square cut running along the top but I see it is simply that this is a roughly flat edge [??natural]. From here I can see that my corner is less so - there is a gap before the angled slab, which is thin, and the other two stones are the true corner. But all of it is on the same 'grid', with at least another three walls on the same alignment [NW/SE if the baulks do run cardinally] between the walls/structure directly ahint the corner and the site's east end by the north end of the platform. Nick Card has noticed where I am and calls me out as this part of the site is still sacrosanct. I try to see the lang stane from the viewing platform ramp but cannot, though a digger near to it is working close to it and in front of her may be another one [?? or the same], for I can see a big long block with a horizontal split hard against the baulk.
Leaving I take a gander at the finds 'trays' outside being packed. I see that large potsherd with deep ribs and two of the smooth stone balls, one an oblate spheroid (dark) and the other an almost complete ovoid (lighter) with a linear crack running around it (and a piece from elsewhere detached on it, sandy coloured inside).
On the way back I'm not too concerned about meeting a bus. Then I see one almost at Tormiston. If that was the 1.30 from Stromness it would have only had five minutes. Not likely is it. My sort of look though. Coming to the main road there were two people beside the road. Going by the cars going by them I figured that they were on this side, so when I saw my bus coming I didn't run pell-mell for it [last time I did that my upper denture plate rattled loose in my mouth]. But the twa weren't awaiting it so the bus shot through at high speed - I do wish they would expand the timetable to match the usual time the driver does, now every time of day is treated the same. Only missed it by yards. Just the time I took to snap a bee a couple of times with my camera. And the deutsche girls were waiting a lift or bus in the other direction ! So another hour to go.
Went to Tormiston and walked up the first section of the track to Maes Howe to take images of the boundary - not going to the mound so no need to pay. Took a few very distant snaps of the circles and Brodgar. After that on the road again. Didn't quite make it to the Harray junction but when the bus came trotted to a place the driver could see around the big bend. Then back to Orkney Blide Trust to finish a piece.
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WALLS WHEN August 12th 2011
Had intended to make my third visit of the digging season to the Ness of Brodgar midweek, however the weather report for then sounded uncertain and so I decided to take advantage of this fine day. Actually when I reached the Brodgar road by bus I did encounter a brief period of light rain, enough to make me thankful for a jacket but not enough to dampen the spirits. Simply had to take photos of the panoramic vistas about me because the light in the distance so clear. If the bowl of land in which the Great Sacred Monuments of Stenness sits is measured from Bookan in the north to Bigswell in the south then the centre is abouthands of the junction [? Barnhouse Stone], and those are the extreme ends of the recorded mediaeval ritual peregrination. The seals were out bathing again on first few of the larger rocks in the Loch of Stenness (once the Loch of Voy, with the Loch of Harray called Muckle Water). At first you only see them if their backs are arched, otherwise they seem identical to the rocks nearer the ness. On the east side of the ness by the other end of the bridge (originally only very large stepping stones crossed the gap) a swan pair occupied their usual nest, the grey gosling nearing their size. Some small bird called to me from across the way but didnae show itself. On this side going up there are usually fulmars gliding by the low 'cliff' but I haven't noticed any this year - mind you it is late in their season for there is only one nesting at the Bay of Scapa now.
Reached the Ness of Brodgar in between the guided tours, so decided not to ask to look at the finds. Re Brodgar Boy what in one view did look idol-like (despite that lop-sided third 'eye') in another was distinctly a broken-off top with a short 'stem' at the bottom. Now that the rest has been found the object is two-and-a-half times as long and looks like a mini-staff (could be a 'baton de commandement' - the archaeologists name for a symbol of authority and/or for ceremonies - or a representation of one). Including the 'neck' and that stem there are three circumferential grooves that might have been for rope - you can easily imagine it with tassels ! In digging the midden of Structure Eight they have found a stone incised with an earth sign [Pars Fortuna].
Structure One has so far produced several dozen incised stones, the last what what they take for a representation of a comet (but a circle with three trailing lines has other meanings). But the most common symbol is what they are calling a double-triangle and associating with a bee, though these also been 'read' elsewhere as butterflies (contrast this with Banks Chambered Tomb's vees/chevrons, which are seen as birds). Pre C14 dating one at Stonehenge was wrongly identified with the Cretan labrys (double-axe). Much has been made of Stenness infuence on the Avebury area, so is this another indicator ? Finally on site the Neolithic roof tiles were removed, only for more to be revealed at the same place after further digging - the imp of the perverse wonders if this is a dump rather than collapse in sensu strictu.
Despite the very strong wind the first thing that I did was go up the viewing platform. The lighting being distinctly flat all structures tended to merge - in these conditions what is needed for photographing features is a little light rain I recall. First new item to 'pop out' the monumental hearth in Structure Ten. ImmediatelyI thought of the one in the Stones of Stenness circle, though I think comparisons will instead be made with Barnhouse 'village'. Next I saw a long slab with ends framed by angle topped orthostats. This must be the probable Structure Ten entrance they have found - having been caught out before by dodgy contexts they are holding back judgement until they can be certain it does not belong to another period or structure (I saw what could be another rectangular feature [or part of a passage/'street'] directly in front of it). Coming down again it did not surprise me that nothing further has happened to the NE corner that took my fancy when I came here with Orkney Blide Trust the previous week (not realising we would stay for the whole 90 minute tour I'd had to come back for The Work photography) as it is at the very edge of the dig. The day I came seemed to be dedicated to cleaning and recording several parts of the site so I tried to avoid getting in their way.
Nothing major looks to have appeared in the sides overlooked by the spoil heaps - I would dearly love to find out where that drain goes to in the piece by the western edge. Filling the appended SW corner Structure Twelve presently sits in comparative isolation from the rest of the buildings it feels to me. Either that will change in future seasons or it is really telling us something. Going round the final side and that massive squat standing stone still has pride of place in the SE corner. Does it extend much below what we see now or will it prove as shallow rooted as the red orthostat they have recently removed ?
Last year they lterally got to the bottom of the Lesser Wall of Brodgar, only to find that it stood on paving and possibly earlier structures. This year geophysics has confirmed that it goes between the sides of the ness and so it is back to being part of a wall circuit encompassing the site they are investigating (could the paving be an extended base ??). The Kockna-Cumming chambered mound still lies outside the whole and the Brodgar Standing Stone Pair straddle the wall. Are the stones from a prior age or were they put there later than the wall, either much later to show where it was or immediately after to mark it out ? Don't be misled by its narrowness in comparison to the Great Wall as only a ditch seperated the 4m thick Great Wall from one ouside of it 'only' 2m thick. Still thicker though - might there be a presently unlocated other Great Wall in parts still virgin to excavation ?? If the remains below the Lesser Wall are from an earlier period then might we re-interpret the putatative structures and likely hearth found in testing outside the Great Wall as coming from that time too instead of post-dating the wall as originally theorised? Certainly the public perception of the wall's primacy needs revising. Indeed it is my opinion the that the Great Wall (and possibly the circuit) comes yet later in the scheme of things than first thought.
Going back the sun illuminated the Stones of Stenness circle perfectly. Every detail of the northern side of one tall stone turned 3D like a thoroughly pox-marked face. This stone is such a pure geometric shape that any modern mason would be proud to own up to it. Two other stones seen almost on edge could be merged into one or turn into a very tight V like fanning fingers by only taking a few paces forward or back. I noticed that the top of the low stone group could be made to match the gap between two facing hillslopes above the south side of Finstown. Unfortunately I haven't managed to capture this in the shot I took, and anyway the setting has been re-erected twice [that we know of] to match changing fashions in interpretation.
At the junction I turned left onto the main road as I had plenty of time before the next bus. At one stage I looked behind me and saw an oddly coloured high-sided vehicle. Only as it passed me did I see it as a double-decker. This was a twin blow as not only did I need the bus but I had been especially eager to ride a double-decker as these are a new thing to Orkney and should give the car-less new perspectives on features in the landscape. Just not to be I fear. Away from the south side of the road I noticed that a small section of a long mound, or mounds, had become further exposed. All I could see was stone and I looked forward to making something out at last when I uploaded the photos to my PC. So my diappointment can be imagined when all that appears onscreen is a natural rocky creamy outcrop. About now the constipation tablet kicked in [an error for the opposite I noticed too late on swallowing !]. By some supreme effort I managed to reach the bus shelter at the Dounby road junction. Unfortunately for a seat it had narrow tilted 'board'. And naturally the bus arrived even later than expected - at certain times only the beginning and end are fixed, all other stops a movable feast. On the other hand I have known some drivers come to a stop five minutes or more before due time and not wait for passengers to come but go straight on. Which is "a bit of a bummer" if you are only twa minutes from reaching it !! Thank goodness there were toilets open at the bus station, as though 'things' had settled down the toilets at the Shapinsay slip might have been a step too far. Still, mission accomplished.
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SANDAY TYPE 2 SYMBOL STONE July 20th 2011
News on Radio Orkney of the find of a Pictish Symbol Stone under the original flagstone floor of Appiehouse in Sanday. Several pagan ones have been found in Orkney - offhand I can think of the Brough of Birsay [copy there, original South], Greens in South Sanday in St Andrew's [original South], and St Peter's Church at Kirkhouse in Paplay on South Ronaldsay [copy there, original South]. However this one is Christian/Christianised, a cross-slab with a Pictish Beast to one side (sometimes called a sea elephant IIRC). The two elements mean this is classed as Type 2. This is the only one ever found on Orkney and is likely to remain so. Julie Gibson reminds us that these were usually placed prominently to indicate that the owner had turned Christian. The Pictish Beast has by some been identified with the monster that St Columba exorcised from Loch Ness, which in turn is read as a metaphor for the triumph of Christ over the pagan deity. The radio did not mention the obverse - was this plain or has the stone yet to be lifted, in which case we might hope for an inscription to come.
Appie is usually a placename element associated with the Picts, if not necesssarily always a Pict placename [to forestall arguments]. It is very common in Orkney e.g. there are Appiehouse, Appietown and Upper Appietown in Harray along the line of the road up to Dounby. The farm of Appiehouse in Sanday sits on a very slight mound (the larger farm-mounds on Sanday are called tells after Mesopotamian mounds). At Appiehouse in Harray there is a prominent mound that has at least one standing stone on it. This broken stone is now less than a metre high. With its lack of packing around the base could this too have once been a symbol stone ??
Thinking of the Paplay district in South Ronaldsay presumably as in Holm and Paplay it refers to a priestly settlement. But my fanciful brain reads it as papil-ey 'isle of the priests', and about half a kilometre and roughly N from the church a mound in marshy ground (Kirk Ness ND49SE 7) "appears to have stood on the shore, or been on an island near the shore, of a shallow loch which has been long since drained" (Canmore ID 9609). It might have been a broch, in 1879 the O.S. Name Book gives it as traditionally a Danish Fort (though by 1929 locals though the structure on the knoll to have been fishermen's homes !). The 14' high Sorquoy standing stone is about another half kilometre from the mound and under a kilometre from the church.
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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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