Eynhallow

This note summarises the evidence for the dating of the multi-period field system that covers much of the southern half of Eynhallow incorporating rig and furrow, terraces, lynchets, drystone dykes, turf banks, ditches and drains. The most recent and most substantial features were recorded on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map (Orkney Sheet LXXXIX.7, 1882; Name Book Orkney 16, 141) some 30 years after the agricultural tenants were removed; but the majority of the individual elements were mapped and described in an archaeological survey of the island in 2007 (Moore and Wilson 2008; but see HY32NE 121; HY32NE 122). Additional features were captured on a series of oblique aerial photographs taken by RCAHMS in 2009 and these were noted in the field in 2015.

The latest phase of enclosure on Eynhallow consists of a series of relatively small drystone folds ranged along the SE coast, which were probably connected with the management of sheep after the island’s tenants were removed about 1840 (see HY32NE 115; HY32NE 102; HY32NE 95). The latest phase of rig and furrow cultivation is represented by a large, sub-rectangular area of rig in the SW of the island (HY32NW 123) enclosed by a turf head dyke. There are also two areas of enclosed rig and furrow of pre-Improvement date (HY32NE 121; HY32NE 122). In both cases, these truncate or overlie earlier turf banks, but respect a turf head dyke, ditched on both sides, that bisects the island from E to W (Moore and Wilson 2008, Site 48, 55, 56). This is finished in drystone at its W end, where it is known as 'Geo of the Dyke End' and the whole is annotated ‘Old Dyke’ on a plan of 1827 (Orkney Archive Service D1/440/1). The builders of the Old Dyke incorporated within it about 100m of an earlier, curved turf dyke (centre HY 3600 2906) (Moore and Wilson 2008, Sites 59 and 60), but they also cut through a portion of another (centre HY 3583 2913; Sites 43 and 57).

The majority of the banks recorded E of the Lodge in 2007 appear to be subsidiary to and later than a large curvilinear bank (Site 49) that runs NNW, before turning W to reach a point where it has apparently been truncated or overlain by the Old Dyke.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 12-13 August 2015