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Tingwall
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Tingwall
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Thing Wall
Canmore ID 2689
Site Number HY42SW 3
NGR HY 4011 2286
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2689
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Evie And Rendall
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY42SW 3 4011 2286.
(HY 4011 2286) Thing-voll (NR)
OS 6"map, Orkney, 2nd ed.,(1900).
The remains of old circular walls or building where the law courts of Orkney are supposed to have been held in former times. A similar object lies 250 links E and 5 chains SW of Tingwall (see 6"map, Orkney 1st ed., 1880)
Name Book 1880.
A large mound, standing in an enclosure. Its name, Ting-wall suggests that it may have been the meeting-place of the 'Thing', but fragments of broken-down masonry suggest stone buildings of considerable extent and of a complex character which may well be older than the Norse period. The site may have been occupied by a broch and its adjacent outbuildings.
RCAHMS 1946.
Thing-voll, a large mound heavily mutilated on its SE side. The remains of a substantial rampart, c1.0 m. high, appear on the west wide, otherwise the mound is as described.
The site, typical of many in the NE of Scotland, is almost certainly that of a broch.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS(RL) 6 June 1967.
Publication Account (2002)
HY42 4 TINGWALL ('Thing Voll')
HY/401229
Possible broch in Evie and Rendall consisting of a large mound just west of the farmhouse. Traces of masonry were seen [2] and a fragment of a substantial rampart is on the west side [1]. The name comes from the Norse thing-vollr, meaning “field of the court” or “assembly” and suggesting that the Viking assembly took place here in ancient times (see also ND06 11).
Sources: 1. OS card HY 42 SW 3: 2. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 268, 80.
E W MacKie 2002
Field Visit (9 May 2013)
This possible broch stands at the WSW end of a natural ridge on the S side of a deeply eroded gully containing an unnamed burn which flows into Tingwall harbour some 150m to the ENE. Heavily robbed, it now comprises a grass-grown stony mound measuring about 20m in diameter and 2.3m in height, at the foot of which is a spread rampart of earth and stone up to 4m thick and up to 1m high where best preserved on the WSW. There is no evidence of this rampart on the N and it appears to have been destroyed by quarrying on the SE. Two terraces further down the SE flank may also be the result of quarrying.
The site of the broch is shown on the 1st and 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map, along with the legend ‘Thing-boll’, which refers to the first recorded interpretation of the site (Orkney 1882 and 1903, Sheet XCVI).
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 9 May 2013.
Orkney Smr Note
Although form 'Tingwall' authentically applies to adjacent farm,
form 'Thing-voll' is bogus - the result of deliberate
antiquarianising. See below.
The OS maps give the name of this large complex mound as
'Thing-voll'. The ONB entry has been modified, it appears,
subsequent to its original fieldwork and probably by a senior
person in the survey. The name 'Thing-voll' has been written in
red ink alongside the note 'Resubmitted - Orkneyinga Saga'. It is
clear from the too-obvious similarity of this name to the ON that
this was deliberate antiquarianising, and it most unlikely that
the name as locally current had this form. It is not however
clear what form the then locally-current name took. (For the Old
Norse Saga form see reference card). The ONB notice reads- 'This
applies to the remains of old circular walls or building where it
is supposed that the old law courts of Orkeny were held in former
times. It is situate 5 chains SW of Tingwall farmhouse'. This
was authenticated by Mr J Garrioch, the farmer, and by the local
minister and the school master. Marwick accepted the mound as a
probable broch site and thing-stead, but there is no evidence that
it was more than a district thing. [R1], [R4]
Fraser takes 'Thing-voll' from OS. 'The western end of the
site is a mound of fair height which has been partly dug into,
and which has all the appearance of having been a broch. E from
this mound for a distance of about 100yds the ground somewhat
resembles a long mound, and the E end was probably the meeting
place of the Thing'. [R2]
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]
