Field Visit

Date 25 October 2007 - 13 November 2007

Event ID 578441

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578441

HY 37300 32500 (centred on) A walkover survey covering c275ha took place 25 October–13 November 2007. A total of 138 sites, ranging from Bronze Age burnt mounds and a possible Bronze Age settlement to post-medieval standing buildings, feelie dyke enclosures and kail yards were identified. These include 111 new sites not listed by the RCAHMS.

Rather than being confined to description, this MSc dissertation discusses the landscape of Quandale at an

interpretive level. The aim was to attempt to break down period boundaries and use the same theoretical approach to the prehistoric and historical sites in the field and in later analysis and discussion.

Significant aspects of the earlier landscape include the close relationship between the Bronze Age barrow cemetery, burnt mounds and possible Late Bronze Age dyke in the S part of the study area. These monuments endure and take on new meaning in the later historical landscape. This is demonstrated by the appropriation of some Bronze Age barrows by certain crofts, a practice which is bound up in certain folklore beliefs. Several burnt mounds to the N fell within a large enclosure associated with the 16th-century house of Tafts (HY33SE 44). However, the large burnt mound, the Knowe of Dale (HY33SE 15), is not enclosed. It appears that while some burnt mounds were included, others were excluded from infield enclosures. The later landscape is considered in terms of the tasks of daily life, including the construction of post-medieval earth and stone dykes and aspects of tenure and folklore. Social stratification was reflected in the structures of everyday life and gender in these crofting communities. Quandale is not a relict landscape but a dynamic one with a future.

Dissertation: Orkney SMR, Orkney Library and RCAHMS (intended)

Daniel Lee (Orkney College), 2008