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Yinstay

Souterrain

wideford Oct 16, 2025

20/2 & 17/3/06 This site is at the top of Tankerness beyond the Hall of Yinstay. Entry to the field is through a gate arrangement. In 1906 J.W.Cursiter excavated an earthhouse here that unusually produced burnt wood, as well as the usual shellfish, sherds and animal bones. He observed that the modern cairn had been built from non-local stone as well as broch-like blocks. A standing stone had been removed in living memory. From the contents of a next-door field (black earth, burn stones, animal remains, liberal pottery fragments) he deduced the former presence of a settlement here.
On Friday I took a closer look at Yinstay and can confirm most of what J.W.Cursiter said about the area. The first time I went I saw stones in a recently ploughed field almost diagonally opposite that of the souterrain site.but only paid a cursory glance as I did not know at the time that this was the field referred by him as adjacent. The farmer is ploughing a third of this field at a time. Its southern boundary running roughly E-W not many yards N from the cairn. Today the middle section was being ploughed and is very dark earth. However this does not appear to have any extraneous material. Upon closer viewing of the now dry ploughsoil (HY50881034 to 51021031) from the southern section boundary I could make out some burnt stone and small nuggets of what appears to be pot. The modern cairn also appears to contain at least a couple of burnt stones as part of the infill. This is 2.0m across and 2.0m at its greatest height in an arc facing the road, but only survives to any height for less than a third of the circumference, rapidly tailing off. There isn’t much of the red sandstone remaining but the outer wall is certainly mostly built up with broch-style blocks, some obviously carved (especially one with a well chamfered corner), though that this came from its field rather than another in the area is to my mind doubtful. I looked for signs of the souterrain by a field corner but what looked like a prospect (HY50841032) for where the discoverer broke through is at the fence a few yards to the north of the cairn, where by a tall toppled stone there is a slight depression of a few feet in length. Coming down to the road I noticed a water-filled depression (HY509103) that looked like something, but there isn’t anything I can point out and it is some distance away.

Yinstay

Souterrain

Rhiannon Mar 24, 2009

Judging by the record on the RCAHMS site, unfortunately I don’t think there’ll be much left here – or at least, there won’t be anything accessible below ground, maybe just a cairn above.

In the beginning of May, Mr. Hourston, tenant of the farm of Yinstay [...] was engaged in fencing operations ... his spade fell from his hands and disappeared underground ... breaking through rough masonry [he] effected an entrance into and underground chamber of very peculiar structure...
It is the highest ground in the neighbourhood... Tradition tells of a standing stone here, which is said to have been destroyed by a bauldie*, who took it for the devil...
The opening to the chamber, which is only three or four feet below the surface, and only a few feet from the cairn, is very difficult to negotiate, and can only be accomplished feet foremost, working oneself down sideways, and on the back... it is of an irregular oval shape, about 19ft. long from east to west, and about 10ft. in greatest breadth. The roof... is formed of flagstones, and supported upon nine apparently water-worn stones set upon end, forming pillars... In the chamber were picked up fragments of deer’s horn, bones, and teeth of horned sheep, oyster and whelk shells, burnt wood, and a few fragments of... pottery.

From ‘A Curious Chamber’, an article in The British Architect, June 1906.

I like the sound of the water worn stones and the image of the farmer wriggling into the space.

*??