wideford

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY30NE 18 at HY35700638 shows the first doubt as to its antiquity in the 1946 Inventory in favour of nature, being considered as a possible erratic. The latest survey thought the exact opposite, as it is is currently connected by the record with a nearby quarry (but in Orkney ‘quarry’ is as omnipresent as well/spring). However the nearest mining feature was a gravel pit and the Stove Quarry only came about in the 19th century with the demise of Stove itself.
It aligns NE/SW and is on the S side of the Orphir road, being only 2’ away from the roadside but 3’6” lower than it. The stone is 2’6” long, 10” thick, and protrudes above field level 2’5”. A probable settlement is over at the uphill side of the road.

It is interesting to note that there is a Grey Stone (HY50150484) at a slight turn in the St. Andrew’s parish underboundary. So how does one distinguish between an existing feature attracting a boundary and one being placed to mark a boundary, especially where this itself could be prehistoric. Grey isn’t exactly a distinguishing feature and it has been suggested [alkelda.f9.co.uk/lore3.htm] for another deeply Viking area that this actually refers to a (perceived or actual according to case) hoary antiquity by the original namers.

To some early antiquarians The Five Hillocks (according to RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY40NE 4 the five in the NW corner of the site at HY45980536) were the Circle of Loda mentioned in the now largely discredited poems of Ossian. But archaeological survey found a kidney-shaped site of eight mounds, one lobe smaller than the other where there was report of a break in the surrounding bank. All have been excavated at some time unknown. In one the depression extends down to the base and exposes a small edge-set earthfast slab that could represent a cist. Since the first report one barrow has been lost, and at the time of the second report the southernmost was going the same way. The bank is spread low about 10’ across, the mounds are up to 7’ high and 15-40’ across.

In the Orkney Room there is a black box on a shelf in the far corner that contains the record cards for our NMRS up till the early 70’s. This contains more information than online CANMORE as that in places only gives a bibliographical reference instead of actual quote. Some of the cards also include maps,sketches, plans, photos. Though these are all in reduced form only the photos can occasionally be unclear. The 1946 RCAMS Inventory is also here along with the standard work on Orkney’s chambered cairns (not the most recent version) and Hedge’s volume on our brochs (only detailed for those he accepts but very detailed for these).

The Bu of Orphir standing stone HY30SW 11 was on the farm near to the church, and in 1863 a freestone ball and a stone celt (axe) were found at it. It is presently unlocated.
By the field border of the Bu boundary in the 1980’s were found N/S aligned rectangular foundations HY30SW 16, with cross-wall, near the shoreline. This is being eroded where it meets high tide.

Above the stackyard of Gyre is the findspot (HY34030473)for what A.W. Johnston called ‘chambered cinerary urns’, which Anne Brundle of the Orkney Museum believes to have been used at the time to describe cists with divisions. It can be no coincidence that in 1974 a double cist HY30SW 12 was found by the stackyard the other side of the road (HY34090464). The archaeologist kind of agrees with me that this could be the remains of a barrow cemetery. If the interpretation of Johnston’s term is correct what is the reason for such a number of double cists in one location ?

There is a Congesquoy near another Bu, the Bu of Cairston/Garson, whose name is said to mean a quoy acquired by the earl. However near Gyre later in the 19th century the fields of Upper and Lower Congesquoy lie within the Commonalty. But again Johnston’s 1820 map shows Congasquoy (sic) outside of this, and Kongar signifies ’ the king’s field ‘. So it comes as no surprise that the one in Stromness was also called Konisquoy i.e. Konigs Quoy.

Two for the price of one, as though there is probably an Orkney-Cromarty tomb within the horned cairn that obvious steep-sided oval at the top near the SE end is a later addition.

A mention with details for three stones that aren’t on Canmore.
“The Book of Orphir” mentions a Giant’s Stone on Ruff Hill in Orphir, that had the mark of the thumbprint of the giant’s failed put from Hoy. No stone is shown on the 1882 map for what is called Gruf Hill but it could be themodernantiquarian.com/site/6406 by the Scorradale road below this.
Another failed stone is another of Cubbie Roo’s misses, this one on the mainland in Evie being a failed shot on Hoy. It has/had several holes caused by his fingers, according the Orkney Name books. Cobbie/Cubbie Roo’s Stone is shown on the 1882 map at HY36712306, between (but to the east of) South Kews and the Styes of Aikerness mound. No stone shown on CANMAP.
Also not on CANMAP is the Stone of Whilcoe, marking the boundary of Birsay and Harray and Sandwick. The 1882 map shows it at HY29612803, the south side of the B9057 at the NE end of Dounby on the 1:25,000 of today. Must look for it – surely rather than a boundary stone where three parishes meet it is/was where they issued from ?
Other stones not on Canmore I know of are the Mark/March Stone of Gaitnip themodernantiquarian.com/site/5422, the Mark Stone of Dalespot HY45690594 on the same St.Ola-Holm boundary, and a different Gray Stone along the Holm-Tankerness parish boundary at HY50150484 near Hamly Hill. Perhaps I missed a few more in the Orkney Name Books.

Orkney Name Book 23 p.61 describes this as a circular knoll of unknown antiquity, so looks to have been heavily mutilated since then.

Orkney Name Book gives two Thing Volls, one a circular structure 5 chains SW of Tingwall farmhouse and another “similar” 250 links from this and SW of Tingwall..

Mine Howe most likely an antiquarian’s translation as mami is from O.N. malmr ‘metal ore’.
Presenting a 1946 RCAMS report on the trial excavations (in The Orkney Miscellany) Marwick gives Moan Howie as the local name, moan meaning ‘marsh’.

The souterrain was excavated in the winter of 1848-9 by a Captain and his men, aided by George Petrie. CANMAP looks in error as the 20-30’ seacliff is up by the new pier rather than at where (Lower) Saverock farmhouse used to be. Petrie locates it at the sea cliff and close enough that he believed one arm once continued to the edge. In 1860 he found rude firebaked clay pottery fragments in the cliff debris (he may have visited other times as the published reports do not mention the bird’s claw bronze fragment he found in the souterrain wall, or indeed any metal). His reasons for initially suspecting a broch were that the souterrain lay in a large mound bigger than any of such type he found as of 1860 and that there were “traces of a great mass of building above and around it” (Wilson says material had been used “for building a neighbouring farm-house and offices” before the Captain came – although the Name Book refers to a square ecclesiastical bell being found here this is surely an error for Saevar Howe). In the published article he amended this to “a burg or other superstructure” – one is reminded of the settlement suggested by Baillin-Smith for the area around the Grainbank earth-houses not far away [and those found in WWII building Hatston aerodrome].

Visible at the back of 31478 is the Head of Holland. The mound at left is the sandstone quarry used for the cathedral, at one time it was thought there could have been an IA structure on it but the area was so destroyed no-one mentions it now (there was a broch at Work farm re-used for a mill course !). On the Holland shoreline nearer to is a promontory fort.

Loaninghead Fort at NN92380999 is RCAHMS NMRS record no. NN90NW 1 with a possible ring-ditch house inside.

The 1903 O.S. 25”:mile shows several more stones this side of the road. They are all on some kind of boundary. The only one on Oldmaps 1882 is a ‘boundary marker’ HY36200633 by Roadside. Another is close by at HY36130633. Up by the Orphir road is HY35910646 at a triple field junction. Lastly by Nearhouse is HY35550624. Or at least they all were, as none appear on Canmap.

Current Archaeology 199 has an Orkney special.
Even knowing the area it took a couple of minutes to get my bearings on the photo on the first page of the Mine Howe article. At it is almost the reverse of the map on the next page here goes :-
Two adjacent squares centre left are the present graveyard. Mine Howe is the first mound over the road in the field opposite the RH square. The large mound to the right of Mine Howe is Long Howe, with the Time Team reconstruction on the lesser end nearest Mine Howe. Right of that again Round Howe extends either side of the road at the bottom of the picture. The mounds of Brymer are opposite the road junction that is off the right of the photo. In the modern graveyard the gravedigger has found evidence of St.Ninian’s Chapel. This used to be said to be on the hillside faintly visible in the field behind but this is now believed to be a settlement area (mediaeval farmstead mooted). The more obvious hillocks to thats left is Stem Howe. Near the back of the field from that glimsed next left, and therefore well off the photo, is Hawell burnt mound (there were originally two). The big farm near top centre is Breck. A beehive chamber (possibly more than one) came out of the stockyard and several thick-walled urns from nearby fields. From the left of Breck there are the remains of another burnt mound halfway along the curving boundary. The track from the road to the farm cuts through a hillock from where a line of erect stones proceeds to the left along the ridge. At the top left of the picture is Meickle/Little Crofty from whose area a cist came.

The last page of the same article refers to howe and knowe and too all being names for mounds. Of course opinions on which are natural and which man-made or altered change, ‘Little Barnhouse’ just roadside opposite the Standing Stones Hotel being a case in point. This applies to too/tuo names, often names later changed to tower. Some of these are obviously structures but the name is also applied to a natural knoll on the side of a hill. Erne Tuo on Mainland is one such – what you see today is a beacon on natural, and this is how it is officially recorded, but a little like ‘Little Barnhouse’ there is an early report of older ruins beneath this. Geophysics or excavation are often the only way to know for certain with lesser, and Orkney is much to rich in unexplored known archaeology for this to happen.

Dryden’s 1871 plan and sketches of the Loch of Wasdale prove useful. The plan is quite detailed for the island and shows a short cist (1’11” x 1’7” x 1’6” deep) at the right back of this as seen from the causeway but within the encircling wall. This site looks more like a dun than a promontory fort, and more like that than a broch. At the time the water level lay 7’6” below the highest point of the island, and as a consequence it is shown connected to land by a neck 45’ across. Perhaps this explains why he does not appear to show the present causeway.
Orkney Room archive GB241/D21/4/1/16 (prob. duplicated in Shetland archives Petrie papers). Though it has plenty of measurements and shows the contours of level changes, the only constructions it shows are the planticru to the left as you come onto the mound and the short cist (which I failed to identify) in the top right corner.

Until sometime between 1860 and 1882 the King’s Mill of Scapa occupied a small part of the present Scapa Distillery site, which I take for evidence of continuity and is likely to explain at least some of the features that we saw downstream.

The first recorded dig at the Broch of Lingro was in July 1870. On the 11th they also began excavating a nearby mound (?HY43240863) south of Lingrow house (HY431086). This turned out to be an unrecorded chambered tomb. “The Orkney Herald” on the 26th reported that it comprised a roof of massive flags held up on pillars of undressed stones and had probably been excavated previously. The tomb was found to be full of debris, from which came burnt bones and a human tooth.

During the 1870 dig they also excavated a chambered tomb (?HY43240863) south of Lingrow house (HY431086), though the sparse details could possibly refer to an earth house.

NMR SD71NE 8 is a probable round barrow at SD75481588, but has never been investigated. Shown on old-maps.

Chambered structure given two possible locations by NMRS – HY21NE 43 at HY25451770 (as fieldnotes, cist now gone and barrow) and HY21NE 44 at 2523 1755 (indeterminate structures a.k.a. Howans where were well and 2 “ancient Broughs” not on present-day map). O.N.B. seems to confirm former.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY40NW 33

Correct location for one of the barrow groups tentatively placed under HY41SW 21 (still not 100% certain the remaining group, a circular group of ten that included 3 large ones, shouldn’t be associated with the other “farm of Wideford in St.Ola” at HY4608 rather than Wideford Hill farm). Petrie “examined” a group of fourteen barrows, from one of which came a stone pestle/crusher. These would seem to be seperate from another barrow seen by him “near the shore of the Bay of Scapa” whose primary internment was a cist large enough to contain a sitting skeleton !

Under this heading come two records on the NW shoulder of the hill; a single barrow at HY34521343 and on a small spongy plateau roughly a hundred metres further NW a group of five centred on HY34421350 (with a possible outlier barrow to their west at HY34381347). The main barrow (NMRS no. HY31SW 17) under a stone scatter has at its centre a short cist, and also produced a cinerary urn (whereabouts presently unknown) – though the 1.3x0.9m capstone is still at the east side of the mound the cist itself is now bereft of its left side. The other barrows, 14-33’ D and 3’ height or less, come under NMRS no. HY31SW 18. ?Coincidentally the short cist sticking up through the mound at HY34431350 is also missing its west end. The large irregular 4’3"x2’ slab that used to sit on another mound, perhaps having been part of another cist, is missing too. Probably one of the group is a 9m D tumulus at HY34521354 that sits on a platform [as does the Howe-Harper cairn on the opposite hill, though there doubts have been raised about the platform].

In a massive thesis on early ecclesiastical sites there is a survey of this area that shows the passage 9 fenceposts from the stream and just inside the downhill field. There it is referenced as a souterrain, which is at least literally true. On March 9th finally found the entrance at HY2706715113.

The Just About Anything earthhouse had an Iron Age building above it, and there were further structures to the N and S of the main excavation. This is described in the published excavation report as the remains of an extensive IA settlement that in all likelihood encompassed the still-visible souterrain also.

The outer defences (3 ramparts and ditches) could be pre-broch or broch.

Robert Bewley’s “Prehistoric Settlements” (Batsford 1994) says that the first occupation was a burial-less oval barrow before the causewayed camp came about. He also talks of the ‘shrine’ being associated with an orthostat and continuing in use long after the place was abandoned.

Though now given the name of a place in the hill above this was the original site of Stenigar ‘stones-farm’, which might be including stones other than this pair.

Though this would appear to be a continuation of the broch settlement it is not presently recorded and may instead relate to a vanished mound from which a Viking burial came (RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 4). This is currently indicated on CANMAP at HY271152 but does not appear on the 1882 map like the Viking cists do (HY21NE 8 at HY27051532, but on the 1182 O.S. at HY26961532), unlike this earthwork.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 17 at HY28881538 on the NE side of a peninsular mound is most probably the western half of a broch 60-65’ across with walls 13-14’ thick (though several tentative investigations found underground chambers, bones, ashes). Only a low and short segment of outer wall survives at the south. Disturbed ground to its SW with a number of large stones protruding might be the location of outbuildings.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 1 at HY25171649 though much destroyed and built over this stony mound is the remains of a 65’ diameter broch on an islet in the Loch of Clumly that lies opposite Via, linked to the shore by a marshy stretch occasionally over-run by the waters. A bit of broch-type wall on the NW has now gone to leave us with the only exposed area a 12m stretch of outer wall-face 0.7m high on the SW of this 2m high mound and outbuilding traces beneath tumble just outside this. There is a likely-looking cell just within the western end of the wall.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 2 at HY25841609 is a tumulus that lies between the road and Via, it being 30m N of the house of Via. A 2’x1’x1’ cist excavated around 1860 was still visible two decades later. Further excavation in 1879 produced nothing of note that has been related. A large depression in the centre is now filled by rubbish, and at the western end what now looks like a cist merely shows where a wireless aerial used to be. Pre-war another cist, 0.7x0.4m, was found nearby at HY25841610 but had nothing within.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 4 at HY26011598 on excavation sometime before 1839~41 uncovered “nothing found in it but a parcel of large stones”. Though what appeared to be these remains was seen at the south edge of a pool of water in 1880 said mound was no longer present in 1928.

The Via Mound is the location of the cist in the SE quadrant of the ditch around the Stones of Via. Fractionally to the right and a little further uphill is the location (HY26051599) of a well shown on an 1882 map. This has now been filled by large stones, possibly from the “parcel of stones” (unless this is to be read parcel of land with stones) as few remain down at the mound.

Latest findings are that it could have been built where a house used to be and possibly by/incorporating a stone circle. The passage includes four stones. Four standing stones form the chamber and the corbelled roof had to start above their level. As with the Howe tomb the socket for a standing stone has been found at the back of the mound, and it is suggested that these came afterwards.

In the very latest book on Stenness, a tome mainly concerned with the Barnhouse Settlement [price forty nicker], it is proposed that the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe were specifically constructed so as to be encircled by moats. If it were not for the road Fresh Knowe would seem another possible candidate.

Camden’s report of an alternative derivation for the name Orkney:
“said by a certain old manuscript to be so called as if one should say Argat, that is (for so it is there explained) above the Getes, but I had rather expound it Above Cat, for it lies over against Cath, a country[sic] of Scotland”

Hoxa believed to derive from Hangs-eil

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY22NE 8 at HY268250 is another barrow cemetery like the Knowes of Trotty but at a lower height. Like the folklore motif they never seem to be the same number twice, the mounds in the main group having climbed from six to eight with HY22SE 36 over the road near Newbigging at HY265249 being counted as an extra member of the same group. The latter (possibly kerbed) is the only one to have been excavated twice, the first time producing a steatite urn. The first report on the main body of the group says the peat depth was the same over the whole field wherein they lie and talks of a single cist with burnt bones being found in the centre of each one.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY22NE 5 at HY27472897 is a turf-covered barrow of 35’ diameter called the Knowe of Crustan. It sits high on a ridge and used to have a standing stone several feet tall on top of it, immediately bringing to mind the Stanerandy Tumulus not that far away. There is some damage, perhaps from the 1852 excavation whose E-W trench produced burnt bones in what is described as a “common cell”. Two wartime buildings have changed its appearance somewhat.

RCAHMS record no. NMRS HY22NE 1 consists of three parts.
Mound ‘A’ at HY29592823 is 52’ across (though half of the W side is no longer there) and 5’ high with possible signs of excavation. It may have been surrounded by a low outer bank with a narrow and shallow ditch, but the indications have gone since the observation.
Mound ‘B’ at HY29592825 produced a cist in 1887, the 28’ diameter foundation outline left has now disappeared.
The year after the war a Late Beaker cist was found in another barrow on the top of a ridge at HY29572826. The barrow has since been removed, though a large amount of stones from in it were placed at a field edge.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 12 AT HY29601339 was in Petrie’s time an elliptical barrow 112’ NE-SW, 66’ across and 22 ft high. Now it is a 38x26m cairn with a maximum height of 5.7m. Traces of horns at the S and E recently led to its re-assessment as a long cairn like Staneyhill across the loch, but yesterday Nick Card opined the size made it a prime candidate for a Maes Howe type tomb rather – so what about those horns now ?
An 1853 excavation at the north end proved abortive (and was subsequently grassed over), though there is an unsupported account of a burial having been found here this would have come from the pre-1851 dig as Petrie mentions none from Farrar’s “considerable trench towards the north end [the earlier excavation was described in 1851 as being from the opposite side to a west climb onto the hill, but if this is the southern end it could be the reason for the putative horns]..

An apparent series of rings forming the Brodgar Farm cairn had been read in support of this being a broch. But as a result of assessing the later and clearer Ness of Brodgar Settlement geophysics results Nick Card is strongly inclined to see these as more indicative of a chambered tomb, probably of the Maes Howe type. This then explains the lack of broch buildings or secondary broch settlement.

RCAHMS NMRS No. HY22NE 9 is now shown by a corroded iron pump-head over a modern square construction at HY25652750. St.Magnus’ well was known for it’s healing quantities. The record show’s the present site as being remembered neither as being said well or for healing qualities. Given the high density of well shown on the 1882 O.S. maps of Orkney (half-a-dozen or more in The Barony) it is possible that there is no identity, but modern absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, people did move about within these isles (a similar example comes from a 1966 Ordnance Survey enquiry about Crantit – the reference was two centuries old and the present farmers had only been there a few decades).

The map on the cover of the research agenda has the Ring of Brodgar legend but shows the present Standing Stones of Stenness as the Ring of Stenness. The slightly later 1st edition of the O.S. only has the latter as ‘Lesser Standing Stones’. More importantly it is the present Ring of Brodgar that has the legend Standing Stones of Stenness! Unless the whole area originally had this designation it would seem we do not know what Orcadians called these circles, so must be careful in attaching folklore and earlier reports to either one or the other when this latter is the referred name.

Details of the putative avenues between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar (from the resarch agenda) ; Watch Stone, Lochview, Stone of Odin, Comet Stone. Also suggested the pairs of stones (indicated at sockets alongside) at the Watch Stone and the Stone of Odin as symbolic doorways linking the circles.
Against the first of these the possibility that the Watch Stone and its companion socket are fragments of a circle now under the loch waters. Contra the second that they actually found three sockets from the Stone of Odin location, the third a few metres away.

The 1882 map shows two Hillheads. The second, just before you come to Highland Park Distillery, is no longer extant. It was called Hillhead of Crantit (HY45090927). HY40NW 13 places two balls recovered here (though confusingly also naming it Hillhead House, which is Hillhead of Scapa) .The other side of the house boundary, at HY45090924, was a minor earthwork. Though my photos are of the feature identified by the O.S. as the souterrain it strikes me as a possibility, should our identification prove wrong, that it may have been there instead.

First described as two half-circle contructions connected by a short stone-lined passage it was thought at the time too big to be hut-circles, now geophysics shows evidence for this being a BA double-house (like the main Taing of Beeman mound).