The Wirk Geophysical Survey

Date September 2020

Event ID 1126646

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1126646

HY 37407 30184 Geophysical survey was undertaken to the N, E and W of The Wirk (Canmore ID: 2282) in September 2020. The aim is to better understand the nature and date of this tower which has variously been interpreted as a 12th-century Norse Castle, a hall-house tower, a defensive church tower and a 16th-century tower and range. Previous excavations by J Storer Clouston in the 1920s cleared the stone tower and exposed a large range to the E, although phasing of the buildings remains unclear. The tower was left exposed but the area to the E was backfilled. A scale plan was made but recording and description of the built remains was minimal.

High-resolution magnetometer survey and targeted high-resolution earth resistance survey was undertaken across the site in order to characterise the buried structures, put the tower and hall in context and inform trench location. Clear anomalies were identified in both surveys at the site of the hall, with potential wall lines (high resistance) matching the main part of the building in Clouston’s plan to the E of the tower. This suggests that wall footings are likely to survive just below the ground surface. Other high resistance anomalies to the S of the hall could indicate the presence of additional structures. Results from the magnetometer survey showed strong positive and negative anomalies within the footprint of the hall and confirmed the presence of a possible enclosure to the S. A curvilinear positive anomaly to the NW of the tower, beyond the apron, could indicate the presence of another small enclosure.

Overall, the geophysical survey has demonstrated that the footings of the hall survive to the E of the tower, accompanied by newly discovered enclosures with possible structural elements to the S and NW of the hall tower. The extent of the site appears to extend beyond the extant remains with anomalies continuing into the kirkyard. Evaluation excavation will target the eastern hall in the next planned phase of work.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Castle Studies Trust

Sarah Jane Gibbon, Daniel Lee and Amanda Brend – Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA)

(Source: DES Volume 21)