Rousay, 'green Gairsty'
Treb Dyke (Prehistoric)
Site Name Rousay, 'green Gairsty'
Classification Treb Dyke (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Green Gersty; Langskaill
Canmore ID 2730
Site Number HY43SW 32
NGR HY 4105 3273
NGR Description From HY 4106 3283 to HY 4105 3263
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2730
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Rousay And Egilsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY43SW 32 4105 3284 to 4100 3264.
HY 4105 3284 to HY 4100 3264. Treb Dyke, 'Green Gairsty': A round-profiled earthwork, spread to 4 m or more in width and with a height of 0.3 to 0.8m, runs straight down a steep slope from 60m OD to the cliff edge; it is composed of earth with occasional slabs and boulders. There is no trace of it above the public road at 60m OD. (For notes on 'treb dykes', see HY43SW 31)
Visited by R G Lamb 1979.
H Marwick 1923; H Marwick 1924; RCAHMS 1982.
Scheduled as Green Gairsty, dyke 740m E of Langskaill.
Information from Historic Scotlad, scheduling document dated 14 January 2002.
Field Visit (September 1979)
Green Gairsty HY 4105 3284 to 4100 3264 HY43SW
A round-profiled earthwork, spread to 4m or more in width and with a height of 0.3m to 0.8m, runs straight down steep slope from 60m OD to the cliff edge; it is composed of earth with occasional slabs and boulders. There is no trace of it above the public road at 60m OD.
RCAHMS 1982, visited September 1979
(Marwick 1923, 22; Marwick 1924, 16; OR 474)
Field Visit (7 May 2013)
This dyke, known as Green Gairsty (RCAHMS 1982, No.91), is situated on the steep north flank of Kierfea Hill, some 680m ESE of Langskaill farmsteading. It comprises an earthen bank orientated roughly N and S and measuring about 10m in thickness by up to 0.8m in height. The N end of the dyke appears to terminate immediately before the cliff edge while the S end runs into a natural break of slope below a the 19th century stone wall and road. There is no evidence that the dyke is broken by the road (contra RCAHMS 1982, 8) or that it continued beyond it.
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 7 May 2013.
