Lower Hobbister

Nearest town:
Stromness (8km WSW)
OS reference:
HY331129
OS sheet:
6
Latitude:
58° 59' 53.48 N
Longitude:
3° 9' 52.32 W
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Lower Hobbister

Hob
Hob Mar 31, 2005

I was sort of compelled to visit, how could I not, given the name connection?

It was late, but there was still enough midsummer sun to make out the parts where the slope is eroding, showing some fairly clear differentiation of soil layers inside the mound. Given that there are so many natural low mounds in the area, it would take a brave archaeologist to openly claim this to be definitely artificial, but what with the name, the strange erosion and the stones in the stream, It’s a likely candidate. It also seemed rather too circular to be a chance deposition of random soil, and it’s within spitting distance of Maes Howe, if that lends any credibility.

Of course, I want it to be an artificial mound, ‘cos it’s where the Hobs or Orkney would live. Though I hear they call themselves Hogboons these days.

Lower Hobbister

wideford
wideford Feb 11, 2004

Coming from the Kirkwall-Stromness road the first hillock you come to on the Germiston Road is, it must be admitted, unremarkable (looking across the road you can see Lower Hobbister farm in the middle distance). But to one side of the far slope is the most magnificent stone-lined ‘stream’. This is so well-made that I feel the hillock has to be an archaeological site too , as if the ‘stream’ has had a section seconded as some kind of rampart. Alternatively the large stones lining the stream could instead have actually come from a structure on the hill ( which shows evidence of ?unrecorded excavation ).

Miscellaneous

Lower Hobbister
Artificial Mound
wideford
wideford Dec 18, 2005

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY31SW 42 refers to a large stone urn but says there is no trace of the mound near the house. But the newspaper report simply locates it as found in a field and, being complete but fragmented, after careful exposure taken entire to the farmhouse whilst awaiting removal to Kirkwall. At this time the road besides which this mound lies did not exist, so it would be parsimonious to equate the two. “The Orcadian” describes the cinerary urn as oval at the rim, with a flat circular bottom, 550mm at its biggest dimension.

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