Fair Isle, Hoini To Vaasetter, Fealie Dyke

HZ27SW 219 2099 7158 to 2039 7195 to 2054 7176

For comparanda, see HU15SE 20.

The monument comprises two stretches of very substantial boundary dyke, formed of accumulated turf and soil over a stone core. This monument is known in Fair Isle as the Fealie or Feely Dyke (from feal, the Shetland word for turf), and may be of prehistoric origin.

The dyke is in two sections, which join near the W cliffs of the island. The N stretch is the longer, and runs from the cliff edge at the head of a deep inlet downslope in an ESE direction to just N of Vaasetter, a distance of just over 700m, curving towards the SE just before its present termination. Originally it continued to the SE for some considerable further distance, possibly for the full 400m which would have bisected the island, but the E portion has been removed by ploughing. The route of this vanished portion can still be clearly seen from the air. The dyke is up to 8m wide at the base and stands up to 2m high along much of its length. It divided the common grazing land (to the N) from the croft land (to the S), a function now performed by a relatively recent stone wall to the immediate N. The second length of dyke is of similar composition but slightly smaller in scale. It runs 250m SE from the its junction with the longer section, petering out in a field. It, too, probably ran further before agricultural activity reduced it.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 23 December 1996.