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Skaill
Hoard (Silver)
Site Name Skaill
Classification Hoard (Silver)
Canmore ID 1666
Site Number HY21NW 14
NGR HY 2369 1962
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1666
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Sandwick
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY21NW 14 2369 1962.
(HY 2369 1962) Brooches Bracelets & Ancient Coins found A.D. 1858 (NAT)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1903).
A hoard of Viking silver, accompanied by coins which date its deposition to not earlier than the mid-10th century, was found in a sand-hill in March 1858. The porportional content of personal ornaments was exceptionally high, but the hoard also included ring, money, silver ingots and numerous fragments of ornaments which had been deliberately cut into small pieces, as well as two Anglo-Saxon coins (one of which was datable to c. 925), four coins of the Abbaside Caliphs datable to 887- 945 and many fragments of Cufic coins.
The greater part of the hoard is in the National Museum of Antquities of Scotland (IL 1-113) but the Hunterian Museum holds two pieces.
S Grieg 1940; RCAHMS 1946.
No further information.
Visited by OS (AA) 21 May 1967.
Orkney Smr Note
Great hoard of silver objects found at Skaill, Sandwick.
Detailed description given. [R1]
Early in 1858 a very remarkable hoard of silver ornaments,
coins,etc. of the Viking period, weighing 16 pounds, was found to
consist of at least nine large penannular brooches, fourteen
twisted neck rings and arm rings, twenty-three solid armlets of
penannular form, eleven ingots and bars of silver, and numerous
fragments of other ornaments, which had been cut into small
pieces. None of the hoards of this character found in the
Scandanavian countries contains such a large number of personal
ornaments. Along with these ornaments there were three
Anglo Saxon and seven Cufic coins, the latest of which was struck
at Bagdad in A.D.945, and consequently fixes the earliest date by
which the deposit can have been made. Most of the hoard is now in
the National Museum; it has frequently been described in whole or
in part. [R2]
It is argued that two Viking-age silvers objects, a complete
single pin and an elaborately ornamented pin head, recently
purchased by the National Museum, derive from the 1858 Skaill
(Orkney) hoard... [R3]
Recent excavations have been conducted on the mound of Snusgar where the hoard is believed to have been found. See DSR of excavation.
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]
