wideford

Videod the site yesterday, first round the whole site then circling the indivisual elements. and observed that most components had an orientation to the Bigswell area (where there used to be a Johnsmas fire on the hillside) – do the alignments we recognise for such places hold primacy or does survival and/or our perception of significance affect our judgement ?

This time I did the clever thing and went to the other end of the quarry and through an open field-gate into the field next door, which is the one with the stones – just follow the field edge over from the quarry tightly uphill if there are crops in it. Despite the crop able to do all the photography I wanted, circling as I had at the Staney Hill one, because this part of the field is rather patchy so that long steps and careful placement of the feet avoids damage. Does this patchiness imply something underlying this, possibly even archaeology ? Looking at the loose and loosened stones directly around the stone I wonder whether s.s. sockets are always contemporary – I can imagine standing stones being, as it were, bare rooted and then someone later noting a Pisa effect and then taking remedial action. Over in the next field towards Howe half-way along the field edge used to be a well (and small building but not a wellhouse), reached by a straight track from the Howe road, and it is likely that other stones noted in the vicinity are from its being filled in in like manner to that at Crossiecrown in St.Ola.

The way to this is on the Cauldhame road (whose marked end lies on the Stromness-Skaill road whilst the other end can be found following the road north from the Co-op and around the Loons), and it is downstream of Una where a fieldfence stops near the burn’s southern edge. In the flesh it presents more the appearance of an islet in the stream, a small water-carved eyot. An urgent bladder deterred me taking a closer look. This is a shame as the burnt material is on the one unseen slope, everywhere else exposing bare yellow earth au naturel. The burn runs around its northern side but doesn’t show on the photos. On the opposite side I saw a ?curving plateau between it and a more or less straight much higher ‘bank’ lying outwith an uphill fence (whose eastern end’s stone post shows continuing erosion by its exposed base, just about visible on one shot) – did the burn once course here too, which would then rule it out as a burnt mound. Adding to my suspicion of once higher waters are the ‘terraces’ around the streamward side. Perhaps the natural has been co-opted and the real archaeology had been on top. I am minded that Langa Dae [Linga Dee] in this parish had cinerary mounds and “the burn or water courses have been conducted in a meandering manner about each mound”

Walking along the bottom line of the Grimeston road [which connects to Quoyer by a couple of farmtracks] at HY31981455 there is a complicated bit of stone building around and about a burn on its western edge.This includes drystane walled banks, but what is interesting is what looks like a short line of brown stones that is the footbridge used in crossing before the road was built sometime after 1882. Coming up the northern leg Langskaill is a fine example of a threshing mill and associated water furniture. Looking across the burn to the field at the end of the furthest south building the brilliant sunshine picked out a rise on the slope as a translucent pale green [possibly with ridges] amid the surrounding dark tussocks. From the road I could see a standing stone on its LH periphery and another at the top. Less obvious is a shorter one hard by the farm building at the right, all three being around the periphery pointing in. Though there is a ‘standing stone fence’ outside the wall they aren’t part of it. Stepping off the road and following an old wake in the damp ground for more views it became even more obvious that this is a mound. A local book on Harray gives the name Pickaquoy for the area about Langskaill, indicating that the Vikings found a prehistoric site here. There is a curving ridge in the field north of the buildings, however there are dozens of these in the Grimeston and Staney Hill area that are of natural formation (banks, moraines, outcrops etc.].
I hold the same opinion of Henge – I know Andrew Appleby was struck by the stones there but it would be hard for the antiquarians to miss a site of such a large size. And Dave Lynn is right about the putative entrance, the causeway is evidently a result of one of the two tracks that preceded the road [devil’s advocate does say the constructors could have taken advantage of such an entrance and removed it in so doing]. Because of sheep only explored some of it. Near the SW corner of the field there is a circular bank around a flattish depression where from the road I saw stones . There are plenty of these and the odd space in places beneath. However there is also a big chunk of machinery so it is difficult to say anything without its removal.