Field Visit
Date 12 May 2015
Event ID 1004507
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1004507
The ruinous farmstead of Hestivall, which stands within its former fields – an area measuring about 4.4 acres (1.8ha) in extent, comprises a range measuring about 13m from ENE to WSW, which sits within the SSE end of a stone-walled enclosure, a second smaller building immediately to the SSE, and a third building, much robbed and presumably of an earlier date, some 10m to the SSE. All three buildings are orientated ENE and WSW, up-and-down the slope, and the two which are better preserved are rectangular and of drystone construction.
The uniform character of the SSE wall of the range suggests that it originally contained a dwelling measuring about 9.4m by 4.4m within walls up to 0.7m in thickness. A doorway at the WSW end of the SSE wall stands opposite a shelf set into the NW corner of the compartment which once housed a pair of rotary querns. A bed-neuk which projects out from the NNW wall is secondary and appears to be contemporary with the wall that divided the interior of the dwelling into two unequal spaces, the larger on the WSW. An outshot at the WSW end, which has a doorway in its SSE side, is also of secondary build, as are the remains of another outshot at the ENE end. This outshot appears to have been robbed, possibly during the construction of the enclosure (27m NNW to SSE by 17.8m) on the NNW side of the range. The ENE wall of this yard seems to overlie a low lynchet that extends to the SSE.
The second building measures about 4.3m from ENE to WSW by 3.6m transversely overall and has a doorway facing the dwelling. Its WSW end is aligned with the WSW end of the dwelling and the two are probably of similar date. The third building has been reduced to little more than a low, grass-grown mound, subrectangular on plan and measuring roughly 10.8m from ENE to WSW by up to 5.8m transversely. The few stones visible within the mound indicate that it was probably stone-built and a low scarp indicates that it contained two compartments. A shallow oval pit that encroaches upon the NW edge of the mound may be a midden contemporary with the other two buildings.
Thompson notes (1981, 46) that in 1841 the farmstead of Hestivall had two inhabitants and that in 1842 it was amalgamated with the adjacent farm of North House (HY33SE 49). Like all the other farms in the area Hestivall would have been abandoned in 1845 or very soon after. Two unroofed buildings are depicted here on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Orkney 1882, Sheet LXXXIV.2) and a contemporary reference stated that the name applied ‘to a ruin’ (Name Book 16, 11).
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM) 12 May 2015.
