Tingwall

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

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.

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.]