Archaeology Notes

Event ID 640968

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/640968

HP50SE 30 5646 0201

(HP 5648 0203) ? Norse Site

Information from Shetland Museum 6" map

Close to the top of the low cliff on the N side of Snarra Voe is a low walled enclosure, 28 1/2ft square, with walls 2 1/2ft thick and rounded corners. It is completely surrounded, at a distance of 65yards, by walling and is possibly a Norse sheep or cattlefold.

Information from Shetland Museum Card Index

At HP 5645 0204, a D-shaped enclosure, about 7.0m by 7.0m internally over walls 1.2m thick and 0.4m high, faced with slabs set on edge. Although it is well embedded in the turf and appears to be old, its date is indefinite, and cannot be attributed to the Norse period without the proof of excavation. A larger rectangular enclosure is attached to the SE side and other stones in the cliff-edge suggest that another structure has been eroded away by the sea. The site is enclosed by an old field wall, probably associated. According to Mr Owers (V E Owers, Hamar, Baltasound) he has found Iron Age pot sherds on this site from time to time, in rabbit burrows.

Visited by OS (NKB) 6 May 1969

A small rectilinear enclosure lying within a larger enclosure is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Orkney and Shetland (Shetland) 1881, sheet viii) and on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1973), where another enclosure is shown attached to the first.

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 6 February 2001.