Excavation

Date June 2019 - August 2019

Event ID 1122521

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1122521

HY 37384 30093 A fifth season of fieldwork at the Viking/Norse/Post-medieval farmstead at Skaill, Westness, (Canmore ID: 351514)) aimed to further investigate the post-medieval farm buildings and expose the western end of the Norse structure identified last season in the earlier phases of the settlement mound (DES 2018, 151-2; DES 2017, 145-6; DES 2016, 131-2; DES 2015, 131) . The work was carried out in July 2019.

Walls extending from below the extensive settlement mound in Trench 4, to the western side of the extant farm buildings, have been confirmed as a Norse building, which is likely to be the remains of a large hall. Substantial 1m wide stone walls were found 5.5m apart with internal features such as stone benches along either side. Two main phases of construction have so far been identified, with the northern wall having undergone considerable rebuilding. The building is orientated E-W with the gable end facing the sea, and appears to be in excess of 13m in length. It continues below the extant farmhouse and beyond the trench to the west. A substantial wall discovered in Test Pit 19 in 2017 may well be a continuation of the building. If this is the case, the hall could be over 20m in length. Finds have included worked steatite (soap stone from Shetland or Norway), Norse pottery and a bone spindle whorl.

Although only partly uncovered at this stage, the Skaill hall has parallels with other Norse halls excavated in Orkney, such as Snusgar in Sandwick, Quoygrew in Westray and Skaill in Deerness. The Westness Skaill hall probably dates to the 10th to 12th centuries AD. The find provides tantalising evidence for the earliest phases of inhabitation on this farm and settlement mound indicating it may well have been inhabited for over 1000 years. Westness is mentioned in Orkneyinga Saga as the home of Sigurd, a powerful chieftain, and it is possible that the hall discovered at Skaill was his residence. It appears that the hall was deliberately dismantled and replaced by a large building on a N-S alignment, which was in turn replaced by the extant farmhouse on the same footprint. It is possible that the dismantling of the original hall coincided with the construction of The Wirk, a substantial stronghold just to the north of Skaill thought to date to the 16th century. It is possible that The Wirk is a replacement of the Skaill Norse hall.

East of the farmhouse, Trench 19 explored the earlier phases of the post-medieval farmhouse. Several phases of construction were identified within the two rooms exposed, with a series of blocked entranceways and other walls continuing to the east. A passageway between early building ranges was further excavated and the basal slabs were lifted. Continuation of the Norse building was not apparent, but the sample area was restricted. Significant assemblages of post-medieval pottery, animal bone and glass were recovered. A fragment of a decorated Norse bone comb was also found within a later deposit filling one of the rooms. Other finds of note include a large architectural fragment of moulded red sandstone which had been reused as a sharpening stone, and a whole horse skull (with butchery marks indicating decapitation) was found placed in the backfill of the southern room. A medieval horizon was further exposed in Trench 22, just to the NE, which may have been truncated by later activity. The substantial wall located in Trench 20 last season was further exposed, and was found to be in excess of 1.10m high with an external stone surface to the north. The full extent of this substantial building was not exposed.

Excavations at Skaill this season demonstrated the complexity of the post-medieval phases of the farmstead, below and to the E of the extant farmhouse. The ground level was raised substantially by c.1m following the dismantling and levelling of the earlier farmstead. It was not apparent if the Norse phases continue below the later building sequence at this stage. Further excavation around the post-medieval structures would be beneficial in order to date these buildings. Significantly, every phase of structure so far encountered at the site from the Norse to the post-medieval has been deliberately dismantled, levelled and then built upon within the sequence.

Excavations at Skaill were carried out in conjunction with the excavations at nearby Knowe of Swandro in collaboration with the University of Bradford and the Swandro-Orkney Coastal Archaeology Trust. The project included community training, placements and an open day working with the island development trust. It forms part of the Rousay Landscapes of Change and NABO projects, which are researching long-term environmental and societal change along the western side of Rousay.

Archive: NRHE and Orkney HER (intended)

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust, UHI Archaeology Institute

Daniel Lee, Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland, Sarah Jane Gibbon, Chris Gee, Bobby Friel - University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute

(Source: DES Vol 20)