Rousay, Skaill

HY 3758 3264 (Breck), HY 37384 30093 (Skaill) and HY 37289 30396 (Brough) Archaeological investigations into the Rousay clearances took place at two sites, c2.5 km apart, in the W of Rousay, 11 May – 16 July 2015. Excavation was undertaken at Breck Farmstead in Quandale in conjunction with measured and landscape survey by RCAHMS of the neighbouring farmsteads. In addition, a building recording survey was undertaken and a test pit excavated at Skaill Farm, Westness. Geophysical survey (magnetometry) was also undertaken at Skaill and nearby Brough Farm. The project was in partnership with the ongoing excavations at Swandro multi-period settlement and tombs (University of Bradford), and investigation of the multi-period landscapes of the island.

At Breck (11–22 May 2015), eight small keyhole trenches were excavated within the farm buildings and four test pits around the nearby enclosure. Breck consisted of two building ranges separated by a close (but and ben with additional room, and corn kiln, barn and byre). The earth floor in the but end had been replaced and the remains of a leather shoe was found buried in the upper floor layer. In a similar manner, the original central hearth slab in the but end had been overlain by another slab which also had a rough back wall. A ‘Z’ motif had been carved into the SW end of the lower hearth slab and may have been a good luck charm. The hearth appears to have been replaced along with the floor. Paving slabs and stone roof slabs were found in the close. The presence of window glass suggests that the stone roof had small skylights. The corn drying kiln had a flue into the barn, both had been swept clean. A dump of pottery was found in the neuk bed and byre drain. Indications are that the farm was built in the late 18th to early 19th century as an outset into the hill land beyond the hill dyke. A team from RCAHMS led by George Geddes prepared notes on 68 sites within the Quandale area, and produced measured surveys of seven farmsteads (North House HY33SE 49, Hestival HY33SE 51, Breek HY33SE 53, Cairn HY33SE 55, Knapknowes HY33SE 60).

At Skaill Farm, measured building survey was undertaken at the two ranges and corn kiln. Geophysical survey (magnetometer) was undertaken in four blocks around the farmstead and also a single block at Brough Farm. The results from Skaill indicated the presence of earlier boundaries on a different alignment to the present post-medieval boundaries, which may relate to an earlier farm.

A small test pit was excavated in the garden area adjacent to the main farmhouse to investigate potential post-medieval midden for animal bone assemblages (8–9 and 14–15 July 2015). Midden enhanced topsoil (containing pottery, animal bone, glass and a 1743 half penny) sealed a stony demolition layer (containing fish bones and a sherd of steatite) which in turn sealed a stone wall. The wall was on a slightly different alignment to the main farm building and is likely to relate to an earlier structure and the other geophysical anomalies. The steatite suggests that the earlier farm could date to the

Viking period.

Archive: Archaeology Institute, UHI

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Archaeology Society and Archaeology Institute, UHI

Daniel Lee, Keir Strickland, Jane Downes, Ingrid Mainland and George Geddes – Archaeology Institute, UHI and HES

(Source: DES, Volume 16)

HY 37384 30093 (HY33SE 161) Investigation continued, 4–8 July 2016, around the Viking/Norse/post-medieval farmstead at Skaill. Four test pits were excavated targeting structural remains, earthworks and geophysical anomalies identified last season. To the W of the farm building range, Test Pit 1 was extended (2.8 x 1.5m), having first been excavated last season in 2015 revealing walling. The walling was further exposed this season and four structural phases were identified: 1) double faced stone wall (c0.9m wide, E/W, at a depth of 0.85m below current ground level) of likely Norse

date; 2) stone wall (E/W), replacement for Phase 1; 3) Stone wall, cuts Phase 2 (N/S); 4) Present farmhouse (18th century). This complex sequence of walling attests to numerous phases of farm buildings at the site within a low farm mound.

Test Pit 2 (1.9 x 1.4m) revealed the remains of a farm building to the N of the main range at the site. The base of an outer stone wall, internal paved floor and orthostatic division were found, suggesting the building had been deliberately dismantled.

Test Pit 3 (2.9 x 0.93m) exposed the top of a linear feature identified during the geophysical survey. It consisted of a stony bank that appears to have formed part of an enclosure to the S of, and perhaps contemporary with, the Norse farmstead.

Test Pit 4 (1 x 1m) investigated the area immediately to the W of Test Pit 1, and revealed possible structural stone and vitrified fuel ash.

Excavations at Skaill were carried out in conjunction with the excavations at nearby Knowe of Swandro (HY32NE 19) in collaboration with the University of Bradford. The project included community training, open days, workshops and placements. This forms part of the Rousay Landscapes of

Change and NABO projects, which are researching long term environmental and societal change along the W side of Rousay.

Archive: Archaeology Institute, UHI (currently)

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust and Archaeology Institute, UHI

Daniel Lee, Jane Downes, Ingrid Mainland and Jen Harland – Archaeology Institute, UHI

(Source: DES, Volume 17)

HY 37384 30093 (HY33SE 161) A third season of research excavations at the Viking/Norse/post-medieval farmstead at Skaill aimed to investigate the date, depth and character of deposits and structures within the farm mound using test pit excavation. Two intersecting transects of 21 test pits in a cross-shape were centred on the farmhouse (N/S and E/W). A total of 13 test pits were excavated/reopened this season, 10–25 July 2017. Test pits were generally 1 x 1m, but some were extended (TP 2, 3, 9 and 17).

Test Pits (TP) 2 and 3 were reopened from last season. In TP 2, the full width (4.6m) of the post-medieval stonebuilt barn was exposed. A stone culvert was located along the northern wall externally. The walls had been demolished to ground level (demolished by 1882). A partial flagstone floor survived internally. In TP 3, the suspected boundary bank sealed a stone-lined culvert and midden enhanced soil, indicating that the area to the SE of the farmstead is likely to contain complex structures and deposits relating to earlier phases of the farm.

To the N of the farm buildings, TP5 contained medieval midden (shell, pottery, animal bone), TP 6 a buried soil below later rubble, and TP 7 contained rubble. TP 9 contained a stone boundary wall (on an unlikely alignment) and TP 10 contained a modern sheep burial adjacent to the kirk boundary wall and was abandoned. Glacial till was located in TP 2, 6 and 7.

To the S, TP 11 revealed deep building rubble which contained medieval red sandstone architectural mouldings, TP 12 and 13 contained midden enhanced soils below deep topsoil. TP 14 and 15 contained topsoil. Glacial till was located at the base of all but TP11 demonstrating the substantial depth of the farm mound on the southern side.

To the W of the farmstead, two test pits were excavated revealing a stone boundary wall in TP 17 and deep soils in TP 18. No test pits on the eastern side were excavated this season (TP 19-20) and TP 1 and 4 were not reopened.

A building survey was also undertaken, 13–16 June, by the HES survey team. Scaled plans and cross sections of the farmstead at Skaill (domestic range and barn/kiln), The Wirk and St Marys Kirk were completed. In addition, walkover survey by UHI around the farmstead recorded 17 sites, including enclosures, walls, earthworks, platforms, structures and an early phase of curvilinear hill dyke (S214) upslope to the E of the road (centred on HY 37782 30589). The test pitting established that the farm mound at Skaill is over c1.5m in depth and contains well preserved structures and deposits dating to the Norse and post-medieval periods. The earlier structural phases are concentrated below the extant farmhouse. Excavations at Skaill were carried out in conjunction with the excavations at nearby Knowe of Swandro in collaboration with the University of Bradford. The project included community training, open days, workshops and placements. This forms part of the Rousay Landscapes of Change and NABO projects, which are researching long-term

environmental and societal change along the western side of Rousay.

Archive: Archaeology Institute, UHI (currently)

Funder: Heritage Lottery Fund, Orkney Islands Council, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust, and Archaeology Institute

Daniel Lee, Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland and Sarah Jane Gibbon – Archaeology Institute, UHI

(Source: DES, Volume 18)

At the request of Dan Lee of Orkney College, HES agreed to provide survey and recording assistance to the Landscape of Change: Archaeologies of the Rousay Clearances at Skaill Farm, Rousay, in 2017 and support for the community engagement. HES produced a measured survey of the upstanding structures at 1:50, a ground plan at a scale of 1:250 and a photographic survey. Drawings were also made of Swandro church and the Wirk, and two of the architectural fragments. The community engagement extended to children and adults, including site tours and explanations of the survey processes. Vegetation conditions in June 2017 precluded ground survey, which was completed in April 2018.

The farmstead of Skaill is situated on the shore to the S of the graveyard of St Mary’s Church of Westness; it extends for about 100m from N to S and occupies three small drystone enclosures between the pebble storm beach on the W and the improved fields to the E (Fig 1). It comprises at least two periods of occupation. The later one dates to the 19th century and includes two upstanding ruins, a domestic range and a kiln-barn and dairy, and the drystone-walled enclosures; the earlier one is likely to be medieval or post-medieval in date and includes two possible buildings, one of which may be another kiln-barn reduced to footings, with various other platforms and field boundaries defined by terraces and earthen banks. In both phases the main axes are roughly east-west and north-south which suggests a continuity of settlement. At least one earthen bank runs under the drystone dyke of the field on the E of the site to indicate that the settlement once extended further to the E into the field beyond. Geophysical survey by University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) in 2015 indicated ‘earlier boundaries on a different alignment to the present’ ones (Lee et al. 2015, 131) that coincide with many of the earthwork features identified during field survey, and there is a strong anomaly in the field to the E.

HY 37384 30093 A fourth season of fieldwork at the Viking/Norse/post-medieval farmstead at Skaill, 9 – 24 July 2018, aimed to continue the excavation of the test pit transects started in 2017, open small evaluation trenches, undertake an earthwork survey of the farmstead and conduct geophysical survey of the fields to the east. An earthwork survey was undertaken, 24 – 26 April 2018, by the HES survey team. The survey recorded enclosures, terraces and structures around the farm buildings (see HY33SE 161). Selected features identified during the survey were targeted during excavations. Large scale magnetometer survey was undertaken along Westness, covering the fields immediately to the E of Skaill, by the Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt (RGK) of the German Archaeological Institut (see separate DES entry).

Three test pits and five evaluation trenches were excavated. West of the farmhouse, Trench 4 extended a previous test pit and exposed a two-phased stone wall which appears to have formed the northern side of a building. This is likely to correlate with the early walls found in Test Pit 1 in 2015 – 16, and could be Norse in date. Evidence for smithing and, significantly, smelting was found in the form of slag and hearth bottoms. Trench 24 was positioned on the edge of an earthwork terrace just to the SW of the house. This contained post-medieval midden and non-structural stone.

East of the house, Trench 19 exposed the base of a range of substantial stone buildings, with earlier footings below the present farmhouse wall (similar to Test Pit 1, and likely part of the same earlier building). Walls and an internal floor were exposed, which were sealed by mid-19th-century midden. A paved passage was exposed between the building ranges at a lower level. Trench 22, just to the NE, revealed demolition rubble which sealed a medieval horizon containing unglazed pottery and rotary quern fragments. Further E, Test pits 20 and 21 revealed a substantial stone wall and deep stony deposits respectively. Both were over 1m deep, demonstrating that substantial and complex structures survive on the upper eastern part of the farm mound.

South of the farmhouse, Trench 23 investigated a stone built enclosure/terrace, and revealed yet more deep and complex stone-built structures, likely the ends of buildings, with dumps of topsoil and rubble. To the N, Test Pit 26 revealed the western end wall foundation of the former barn/kiln range exposed in Trench 2 in 2016 – 17.

Survey and excavations at Skaill this season demonstrated the complexity of the farmstead. The farm mound contains complex multi-phased structures and deposits, across a wide area, with the current sequence containing buildings from the Norse, early post-medieval and later post-medieval periods.

Excavations at Skaill were carried out in conjunction with the excavations at nearby Knowe of Swandro in collaboration with the University of Bradford and the Swandro-Orkney Coastal Archaeology Trust. The project included community training and open days. It forms part of the Rousay Landscapes of Change and NABO projects, which are researching long-term environmental and societal change along the western side of Rousay.

Archive: Archaeology Institute, UHI (currently)

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust, Orkney Archaeology Society, and Archaeology Institute

Daniel Lee, Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland and Sarah Jane Gibbon – Archaeology Institute, UHI

(Source DES Volume 19)

HY 37384 30093 A fifth season of fieldwork at the Viking/Norse/Post-medieval farmstead at Skaill, Westness, (Canmore ID: 351514)) aimed to further investigate the post-medieval farm buildings and expose the western end of the Norse structure identified last season in the earlier phases of the settlement mound (DES 2018, 151-2; DES 2017, 145-6; DES 2016, 131-2; DES 2015, 131) . The work was carried out in July 2019.

Walls extending from below the extensive settlement mound in Trench 4, to the western side of the extant farm buildings, have been confirmed as a Norse building, which is likely to be the remains of a large hall. Substantial 1m wide stone walls were found 5.5m apart with internal features such as stone benches along either side. Two main phases of construction have so far been identified, with the northern wall having undergone considerable rebuilding. The building is orientated E-W with the gable end facing the sea, and appears to be in excess of 13m in length. It continues below the extant farmhouse and beyond the trench to the west. A substantial wall discovered in Test Pit 19 in 2017 may well be a continuation of the building. If this is the case, the hall could be over 20m in length. Finds have included worked steatite (soap stone from Shetland or Norway), Norse pottery and a bone spindle whorl.

Although only partly uncovered at this stage, the Skaill hall has parallels with other Norse halls excavated in Orkney, such as Snusgar in Sandwick, Quoygrew in Westray and Skaill in Deerness. The Westness Skaill hall probably dates to the 10th to 12th centuries AD. The find provides tantalising evidence for the earliest phases of inhabitation on this farm and settlement mound indicating it may well have been inhabited for over 1000 years. Westness is mentioned in Orkneyinga Saga as the home of Sigurd, a powerful chieftain, and it is possible that the hall discovered at Skaill was his residence. It appears that the hall was deliberately dismantled and replaced by a large building on a N-S alignment, which was in turn replaced by the extant farmhouse on the same footprint. It is possible that the dismantling of the original hall coincided with the construction of The Wirk, a substantial stronghold just to the north of Skaill thought to date to the 16th century. It is possible that The Wirk is a replacement of the Skaill Norse hall.

East of the farmhouse, Trench 19 explored the earlier phases of the post-medieval farmhouse. Several phases of construction were identified within the two rooms exposed, with a series of blocked entranceways and other walls continuing to the east. A passageway between early building ranges was further excavated and the basal slabs were lifted. Continuation of the Norse building was not apparent, but the sample area was restricted. Significant assemblages of post-medieval pottery, animal bone and glass were recovered. A fragment of a decorated Norse bone comb was also found within a later deposit filling one of the rooms. Other finds of note include a large architectural fragment of moulded red sandstone which had been reused as a sharpening stone, and a whole horse skull (with butchery marks indicating decapitation) was found placed in the backfill of the southern room. A medieval horizon was further exposed in Trench 22, just to the NE, which may have been truncated by later activity. The substantial wall located in Trench 20 last season was further exposed, and was found to be in excess of 1.10m high with an external stone surface to the north. The full extent of this substantial building was not exposed.

Excavations at Skaill this season demonstrated the complexity of the post-medieval phases of the farmstead, below and to the E of the extant farmhouse. The ground level was raised substantially by c.1m following the dismantling and levelling of the earlier farmstead. It was not apparent if the Norse phases continue below the later building sequence at this stage. Further excavation around the post-medieval structures would be beneficial in order to date these buildings. Significantly, every phase of structure so far encountered at the site from the Norse to the post-medieval has been deliberately dismantled, levelled and then built upon within the sequence.

Excavations at Skaill were carried out in conjunction with the excavations at nearby Knowe of Swandro in collaboration with the University of Bradford and the Swandro-Orkney Coastal Archaeology Trust. The project included community training, placements and an open day working with the island development trust. It forms part of the Rousay Landscapes of Change and NABO projects, which are researching long-term environmental and societal change along the western side of Rousay.

Archive: NRHE and Orkney HER (intended)

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust, UHI Archaeology Institute

Daniel Lee, Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland, Sarah Jane Gibbon, Chris Gee, Bobby Friel - University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute

(Source: DES Vol 20)

HY 37384 30093 Fieldwork continued, in July 2021, at the Viking/Norse/post-medieval farmstead at Skaill, Westness, Rousay aiming to further investigate the post-medieval farm buildings in the later phases of the settlement mound (See DES Volumes 16–20; Canmore ID: 351514). This followed a year without any fieldwork, during 2020. The Norse hall that was partly exposed in 2019 (Trench 4) was not excavated this season.

Excavations focused on the area around the post-medieval farmhouse, particularly to the E. Buildings in Trench 19 were sample excavated, Trench 22 was reopened, and Test-pit 5 was reopened and extended. Key dating evidence (particularly pottery and clay pipe) was recovered to refine the phasing of the farmstead. Part of Trench 19 was reopened and the internal floor in Room 2 (South) was sample excavated in section at the northern end. Three phases of internal floor were identified. The upper flagstone floor surface sealed a lower floor and stone-built platform. These and the upper floor abutted the blocked doorways to the E and

W. The second floor appears to have been contemporary with a doorway into Room 1 to the N. The secondary floor, supported by a levelling layer of rubble, sealed the remains of a primary flagstone floor. This contained a large stone-capped culvert that flows into the passage below the western door. The primary floor continues below the western door blocking. The drain was unexcavated. Diagnostic pottery recovered from levelling layers below the floor layers indicates that the building could have been in use from as early as the 15th or 16th centuries (detailed analysis pending). No excavation took place in Room 1 (North) this season.

In the passage between the main building ranges in Trench 19, a stone wall blocking the passage and abutting deposits were excavated. This section recovered 17th- to 18th-century pottery and clay pipe.

Excavations in Trench 22 removed the remaining midden enhanced layers that were exposed in the trench base. A significant assemblage of animal bone and diagnostic pottery was recovered, including half a whalebone spindle whorl.

Test-pit 5, within the transect, excavated in 2018 to the W of the domestic farmhouse range, was reopened and extended. This contained midden, rich in shell and animal bone. Late medieval pottery was also recovered. An E/W aligned stone wall was revealed below the midden-enhanced layers. The wall, which appears to have been a boundary rather than a building wall, sealed a lower horizon that was above the glacial till.

Excavations at Skaill are part of the Landscapes of Change and link with NABO and Swandro projects, which are researching long-term environmental and societal change along the western side of Rousay. The excavation is also one of the case studies for the AHRC/DFG-funded LIFTE (Looking in from the Edge) project. Archive: UHI Archaeology Institute

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, UHI Archaeology Institute

Daniel Lee, Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland, Sarah Jane Gibbon, Chris Gee, Bobby Friel – University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute

(Source: DES Vol 22)

HY 37384 30093 Fieldwork continued at the Norse/post-medieval farmstead at Skaill, Westness, Rousay aiming to further investigate the post-medieval farm buildings that make up the later phases of the settlement mound. This followed a year with limited fieldwork during 2021. The Norse hall that was partly exposed in 2019 (Trench 4) was not excavated this season. A series of radiocarbon dates has been obtained for the site.

Excavations continued to focus on the area to the E of the extant

post-medieval farmhouse. Trench 19 was extended to the N and S (total 16.1m long, 7.4m wide) to further expose the former building range and Trench 22 was reopened (6 x 2m). Trench 29 (5 x 2m) was opened beyond a boundary wall into the neighbouring field, continuing the line of Trench 22 to the E. A small evaluation trench (Trench 30, 4 x 1m) was opened within the enclosure to the W of the farmhouse to explore an earthwork and potential continuation of the wall encountered last season in Trench 5.

Substantial built remains were exposed in the northern and southern extensions in Trench 19. Rooms 1 and 2 were near fully exposed and several phases of construction were evident. The earliest apparent phase included the large rectangular wall encompassing Room 1 at the northern end, which had subsequently been subdivided with an internal wall containing a vent for a likely square corn-drying kiln at the northern end. There was a hearth stone abutting the internal northern wall of the kiln and it is this structure that is likely depicted on an 1840 estate map (before being demolished prior to the 1880 OS map). The eastern wall of this room had been replaced and was built above later floor horizons along with the internal kiln wall. The upper surviving floor surface was uneven with stone structures protruding from below, along with significant height differences externally, indicating significant build-up of floor levels throughout the history of the building. A section excavated externally to the N of the building exposed the external wallface (>1.05m high) and additional walls at a lower depth.

To the S, Room 2 had been extended at least twice, with a series of additions abutting the southern end to create a single long room.

The upper stone floor surface was exposed with a central hearth stone above the remains of a former gable end wall (now forming a step in the floor level). Numerous doorways were added during the extensions and then later blocked. The southern end of the building range was observed just outside the trench. Room 2 was later mass filled with stone rubble, containing high frequencies of 19th-century pottery, into which a small stone-built store was constructed on the western side, contemporary with the later path along the front of the extant farmhouse range. The store was built following the demolition of the southern end of the range/Room 2, and later filled in itself.

Further excavations in the infilled passage to the W of Room 1 (below the stone path) recovered a finely moulded red sandstone fragment (stylistically 13th-century), with similar decoration and dimensions to the finial section recovered nearby at The Wirk by Clouston in the 1920s and the crockets of both are comparable to a choir arcade cap in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. The recovery of this high-status architectural fragment from sealed contexts adds weight to the presence of high-status medieval ecclesiastical buildings nearby.

Excavations in Trench 22 removed the remaining midden enhanced layers that were exposed in the trench base revealing a stone capped drain cut into the subsoil. Radiocarbon dates indicate a Norse date for the drain and midden layers above (see below).

Trench 29 (5 x 2m) revealed a rough stone surface, which contained some structural stones features suggesting it might have been a wall foundation. This overlay a sequence of layers containing some cultural material, but not the rich midden layers exposed in neighbouring Trench 22. No further excavation will be undertaken.

Trench 30 contained a sequence of topsoil rich layers, forming an earthwork boundary, the lower of which contained medieval material. Excavations were limited and did not expose any potential continuation of the wall from Trench 5 to the E (exposed in 2021).

A series of radiocarbon dates have been obtained from faunal remains recovered from multiple trenches. The upper occupation derived deposit inside the hall (Trench 4) indicates it is probably at least 11th-century AD and potentially earlier (mid-11th- to early 12th-century AD). Of note, the earliest middens excavated so far were found in test-pits to the N and S of the hall and early farm (early 11th- to mid/late 12th-century AD, Test-Pits 5 and 11 respectively). Later middens were found to the E of the hall and farm (late 13th- to late-14th-century AD; Trench 22). In two locations, middens dating to the 13th–14th-century were overlain by later midden horizons dating to the early 14th-to early 15th- century (Test-Pit 5) and mid-15th to mid-17th century AD (Trench 22). Full details of the radiocarbon dates are available in the site report. The dates indicate that the farmstead to the E of the hall is likely to have been built soon after the decommissioning of the Norse Hall and may even contain some structures that were contemporary with the later stages of its occupation (perhaps subsequently incorporated into the range of buildings in Trench

19). It is possible that the early phases of the buildings in the

northern end of Trench 19 are contemporary with the early middens in Trench 22. Future excavations will attempt to establish the stratigraphic relationship between the two.

Excavations at Skaill are part of the Landscapes of Change: Archaeologies of the Rousay Clearances and the Westness Estate project is also one of the case studies for the AHRC/DFG- funded LIFTE (Looking in from the Edge) project. It links with NABO and Swandro projects, which are researching long-term environmental and societal change along the western side of Rousay.

Archive: NRHE and Orkney HER (intended)

Funder: Orkney Islands Council and UHI Archaeology Institute

Daniel Lee, Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland, Sarah Jane Gibbon, Julia Cussans, Bobby Friel – University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute

(Source: DES Volume 23)