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Rousay, Point Of Avelshay

Battery (19th Century)

Site Name Rousay, Point Of Avelshay

Classification Battery (19th Century)

Canmore ID 190739

Site Number HY42NW 77

NGR HY 4490 2809

NGR Description HY 4490 2809 and HY 4491 2811

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/190739

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Rousay And Egilsay
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Activities

Field Visit (September 2009)

HY 4490 2809 (centred) A shoreline pasture field at Point of Avelshay was visited in September 2009 to assess its suitability for a single wind turbine installation (subsequently rejected for non-archaeological reasons). The main archaeological feature in the field is a gun emplacement (noted by RCAHMS and Orkney SMR), and a small complex of minor features in the NE corner.

The current field outline is unchanged since at least 1882, when it was depicted on the 1st Edition OS map. The only significant feature today is the emplacement, containing two semi-derelict rectangular huts with a connecting low earth bank, lying at the seaward field edge above low cliffs. The huts are built of coursed and finely dressed mortared masonry and retain their stone slabbed roofing under a partially turfed covering; their style and scale are generally similar to examples locally of 19th-century fishermen huts.

They derive from the period when Rousay was owned by General Frederick William Traill-Burroughs, a minor national hero for his part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny in 1857–8 but regarded as one of the most notorious of the 19th-century Orkney lairds for his treatment of tenant farmers. After retiring from the army, Traill-Burroughs became commander of the Orkney Volunteers, and raised a corps on Rousay in 1875 with a battery at the Point of Avelshay (details from WPL Thompson’s The little General and the Rousay crofters: crisis and conflict on an Orkney Estate, p88). The 1st Edition OS map (1882) does not show the battery, but does depict a ‘Volunteer Rifle Range’ about 400m to the W along the western boundary of this field, with a Butt Target close to the shore and markers going inland at 100, 200 and 300 yards. The 2nd Edition OS map (1902) no longer shows the range but does show the battery, although it is marked as disused. The structural description is as observed with additional background from Sinclair Taylor, the landowner who lives at

Avelshay farm, 0.6km to the NNW.

HY 44891 28073 Hut A (Altitude 10m) The southerly and smaller of the two, 3.1 x 2.3m on a WNW–SSE alignment, with 0.5m thick walls. The only opening is a 0.7m wide and 2.0m high lintelled doorway on the short western (landward) side. This gable end continues upwards for another 0.5m above the lintel to the end of the shallow pitched spinal roofline. The interior is fully sealed with a tightly interlocked floor of dressed stone slabs and similar tightly fitted ceiling slabs; the interior walls are fully dressed with mortar around the masonry facing to present a flush finish, but no other fittings survive.

HY 44906 28097 Hut B (Altitude 12m) Lies NE on a NW–SE alignment, giving a separation of 18–21m. It has a larger plan of 5.6 x 2.7m, with 0.5m thick walls. The lintelled doorway in the landward (NW facing) short side is the only opening into the interior, and is 0.6m wide by 1.85m high. The height to the top of the dilapidated gable end is about 2.5m. The interior has a flush-fitted slab floor, but lacks the stone slab ceiling, showing a system of wooden beams, rafters and cladding which may be replicated in Hut A above its slab ceiling. The internal

stone facing is smooth and apparently black painted or tarred, but lacks the absolutely flush mortaring of Hut A. All four walls, including the doorway end, have inserted horizontal wooden laths at various heights between 0.6–1.4m; there is only one in the doorway end, but the other three walls have two each. In all cases they were built into the wall rather than attached post-construction, as shown in the corners where the laths continue behind the masonry of the joining face. All the woodwork for the roof, the laths and an internal door frame is in superb condition for an age of over 130 years.

HY 44903 28078 (midpoint) Earth bank (Altitude 7m) The bank is a grass-covered arc connecting the two seaward ends of the huts, it is a maximum 8m wide by 0.5–1.0m high. Several turf breaches from cattle trample show a consistent matrix of soft black earth with a minimal stone content and no apparent revetting masonry. However, the joining corners of both huts on the inside of the enclosed arc show a masonry

continuation of 4–5 courses for up to 0.5m into the bank; in each case the detail is confused by trample damage and fallen hut masonry, but a more complex joining arrangement is suggested.

The initial impressions were that both huts had been rebuilt relatively recently, with the pristine state of the flushed internal mortaring in Hut A, the pristine internal woodwork in Hut B, the different sizes of the huts and the corner wall base masonry extensions into the bank all suggesting remodelling. However, Sinclair Taylor was positive that no rebuilding had occurred in the century or so his family had farmed or owned the field. Until about 1900 the battery remained intact and fully equipped with cannons in the flagged forecourt enclosed behind the bank, which was a massive bund to semi-bury the turf-roofed huts and totally conceal the complex from seaborne visibility. A target was moored off Wyre and sometimes towed across the Sound for practice firing at a moving target. Hut A was apparently the ammunition store so complete sealing from damp was paramount which explains its particular characteristics. Hut B was the gun store, with the wooden laths on the walls being mountings for gun racks. After the cannons were removed c1900, most of the bund material was

rapidly removed and spread as field soil and the huts used for weathertight storage.

The emplacement was probably built with an objective of prestigious display amid rivalry with other district

volunteer units; as the project of a retired general and laird, it was probably intended as the best and most impressive, which might explain the very high standard of construction for such minor buildings. However, this does not mean it was only a folly, as its design seems to reflect experienced military thinking; the precision of the location was only fully apparent from a visit to the summit of the overlooking Knitchen Hill, when its ability to command the three channels between Rousay, Wyre and Egilsay became clear. It is also interesting that while the huts are broadly similar, there are specific differences which seem deliberately designed for purpose. Although the history is short-lived it offers some social context and possible insights into the character of a controversial individual who had a major impact on 19th-century Rousay.

The complex in the NE corner of the field has three components in an area of 19m W-E x 18m N–S defined to

the E by low cliffs and the current field boundary wall to the N. Two largely buried orthostats lie 6m apart on a W-E alignment at HY 44930 28234 and HY 44950 28229, with slight mounding suggesting that a sub-turf wall footing runs from the cliff through the stones into the field for about 19m. A small stone cairn c2.5m in diameter and up to 0.5m high lies to the N of the buried wall outline at HY 44946 28235, and contains small rounded stones which do not show the mixed characteristics of simple field clearance material. A third element immediately N of the cairn is a 10m long and 1.5m wide naust-like ramp dug through into subsoil from the shore into the field at HY 44938 28242. While the ramp was dug c30 years ago for beach access by Sinclair Taylor, the wall footing and the cairn might have archaeological potential. They are noted for completion along with another more obvious ramp down the cliff further S at HY 44932 28204 apparently inserted for 19th-century kelp collection.

David Lynn

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