Ness Of Gruting
Field System (Prehistoric), Settlement (Prehistoric), Structure (Prehistoric)
Site Name Ness Of Gruting
Classification Field System (Prehistoric), Settlement (Prehistoric), Structure (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Seli Voe
Canmore ID 277
Site Number HU24NE 12
NGR HU 28137 48332
NGR Description Centred HU 28137 48332
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/277
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- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Sandsting
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU24NE 12 centred 28137 48332
See also HU24NE 13.
(Area HU 281 484) A Neolithic house was excavated by Calder on a shoulder of the slopes of Ness of Gunting above Seli Voe. A unique feature was the peat-ash in-filling of the double wall, in which was found a considerable quantity of Western Neolithic potsherds, suggesting that the infilling came from the waste heaps of a pottery. The implements found include two polished stone axes and Early Bronze Age types. A few Iron Age sherds were also found in the higher levels.
A field system extends from the house, down the slopes of the Ness almost to the shore of Seli Voe. The fields are loosely defined, some by scarps and terracing and others by stones at intervals in the foundation alignments or by grass-covered stony banks. On the same shoulder at the house and about 170' west of it, there is an oblong enclosure, 87' by 77', its periphery marked by a close-set line of foundation stones as deeply embedded in the earth as these of the walls of the house,. It was probably a stock enclosure, but a field clearance heap in the middle suggests that it has been cultivated at one time, and stone heaps occur in most of the other fields of this system.
Finds are now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).
C S T Calder 1958; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1954
'Neolithic-Bronze Age' house, at HU 2814 4836, enclosure and field system as described and planned by Calder.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS(RL) 13 June 1968.
The following objects from this site are held in the Royal Museum of Scotland:
SHE 9 (NMS HD 1026). Stone hammer of elongated, flat form, petrologically identified as serpentite.
SHE 10 (NMS HD 1024). Unfinished miniature battle-axe, of Intermediate-Developed form and petrologically identified as banded metamorphic rock.
SHE 11 (NMS HD 1025). Miniature battle-axe, possibly of Intermediate-Developed form, and petrologically identified as fine-grained red sandstone.
T H McK Clough and W A Cummins 1988.
Scheduled with HU24NE 13 as Ness of Gruting, burnt mound, farmsteads and field systems.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 8 February 1993.
There is an amorphous structure (HU 28010 48373) some 130m to the NW of the house excavated by Calder, comprising a large C-shaped mound of stones with further arcs of stone adjacent.
Information from RCAHMS (DCC) 22 February 2005
Aerial Photography (October 1973)
Oblique aerial photographs taken by John Dewar in 1973.
