Papa Westray, Weelie's Taing

Weelies Taing HY 505 533 HY55SW

Weelies Taing is an extensive boulder-spit comprising two arms, which enclose a tidal pond, the whole being covered at high tide. On the narrower (W) arm are three groups of structures, all built of water-worn slabs packed slantwise face-to-face, with the faces transverse to the line of the walls. Nearest to the land are two parallel walls, of similar construction, 6m apart, forming a 'roadway' running along the taing; the W wall seems to be the E edge of a broad platform. Half-way along, the arm is crossed by a transverse wall, and at its extremity, where it joins the broader (E) arm, is a substantial circular pund 9m in diameter over walls 0.6m thick. Near its N margin a fragmentary wall, traceable for some 20m, meanders away to the ENE. The circular pund was probably a refuge or 'sheep-fort', for sheep cut off by the tide, but the other structures, which have taken much labour to construct, are less readily explained.

RCAHMS 1983, visited June 1982.

(OR 823).

Three groups of structures have been previously recorded on a boulder spit which surrounds a tidal pool. The spit is covered at high tide and is only intermittently accessible. The structures, which were not inspected during this survey, are described as a trackway, a pund and a fragmentary wall. The trackway and wall are said to be of careful construction and unknown function, while the pund is likely to have served as a refuge for sheep cut off at high tide.

Moore and Wilson, 1998

Coastal Zone Assessment Survey

Similar structures on the west coast of Scotland have been dated to the Mesolithic and suggested as fish traps. However, without further evidence this remains speculation.

Information from Orkney SMR (SJM) Jan 2006