Yell, Cunnister

HU59NW 14 c. 52 96

ME 222. Large oval dish of wood, filled with butter, found in moss at Cunnister, North Yell, Shetland. Purchased 1888.

NMAS 1892.

Carved dish with remains of lid. Filled with bog butter and attributed to the late 1st millennium AD. NMS ME222/SH 8.

C Earwood 1993.

In 1887 an 'oblong wooden vessel' was found at a depth of 3' (0.9m) in a peat moss at Cunnister or Gunnister which is situated on the E side of Basta Voe in the NE part of Yell. It is in store at the Royal Museum of Scotland under accession number NMS SHC 6.

The vessel was described as being 'somewhat like a large nut in appearance' and 'covered by a thin covering of fibre, evidently the inner bark of some tree'. It measured 1'8" (0.5m) in length over all by 1' (0.3m) transversely, and 7" (178mm) in thickness. The internal cavity contained a 'mass' of bog butter.

Held in store at the Royal Museum of Scotland there is an (unlabelled) object which may be identified as this trough. After (presumably) shrinkage, it measures about 0.64m in length by 0.25m in breadth and 0.16m in depth and has been worked from a length of gnarled and knotted timber which is roughly-square in section and has been split in places; the shaping of the exterior has been minimal and the light weight of the piece appears to confirm the proposed timber identification. Internally, the piece is roughly squared at the ends and rounded in section to produce a cavity of roughly cylindrical form measuring about 0.48m in length by 0.19m in breadth and 0.11m in depth; the volume thus appears to have been about 1 litre. No lid appears to survive and there is no indication of one having existed. Toolmarks of indeterminate form are visible within the interior, and there appears to have been some rotting of the timber.

W I Macadam 1889; J Ritchie 1941; C Earwood 1993; B A Crone 1993; R J C Mowat 1996, visited November 1994.

NMS ME 222. Large oval dish and lid found in peat-moss, 1887.

NMRS, MS/996/1.