Sefster
Souterrain (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Sefster
Classification Souterrain (Iron Age)(Possible)
Canmore ID 757
Site Number HU35SW 14
NGR HU 3017 5033
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/757
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Sandsting
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU35SW 14 3017 5033.
An underground structure a few yards from the houses at Sefster has disappeared.
Excavations, (J Hunt 1866), in 1865 disclosed a structure "rather more than" 15yds long, varying in width from 16 to 19 inches and in height from 2 to 2 1/2ft. The sides were perpendicular and the roof was of lintel stones. At one end was an expansion up to 2 1/2ft in width and about 4ft long. The other end was open. At first glance a drain, but the size and the rise and fall of the floor tend to disprove this idea. Many unclassified stone implements were found on the surface and in the soil above and within the structure.
RCAHMS 1946; A Mitchell (plan) 1870.
HU 3016 5035. The site (verified by a local informant who remembered her father describing the excavation) is now marked by an excavated straight trench c.14.0m long by c.1.3m wide, almost silted up. Only two or three earthfast stones remain. Unable to classify, but presumably a souterrain.
Visited by OS(AA) 13th June 1968.
Field Visit (7 July 1931)
Underground Structure, Sefster.
Although this structure has entirely disappeared, it is known to have been situated only a few yards distant from the houses at Sefster. It seems to have been first examined by a former minister of the parish, the Rev. John Bryden, who is said to have found some stone implements (1). In 1865 it was again explored, on this occasion by members of the Anthropological Society of London, who reported as follows: "It was rather more than fifteen yards long. The passage varies in width from sixteen to nineteen inches. At one end there is an expansion, which is squarish, and at its widest two feet and a half. This expansion continues more or less over four feet of the length of the passage. The sides are perpendicular, having no tendency to meet at the top. They vary in height from two feet to two feet and a half. The lintels are large and flat, but differ greatly in size and shape. . .. At first sight . . . this structure looked like a large drain, but that it was not so is rendered more than probable, first, by its size, which is too great for a drain; and secondly, by the fact that the floor was not level, but rose and fell again at one or two places, where the rock was reached" (2). Many rude stone implements were found, but they are said to have afforded no indication of the true nature or period of the structure.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 7 July 1931.
(1) Mem. Anthrop. Soc. Lond., ii (1865-6), p. 311.
(2) Ibid., pp. 311-2.
