Rousay, Garsnie Geo

Treb Dykes

Awareness of linear earthworks of prehistoric origin has grown in recent years and the Orkney trebs, which were observed and repeatedly reported on by Hugh Marwick in the 1920s but ignored by his archaeological contemporaries, are overdue for resurrection. They are major features yet, surprisingly, only one example - the Funzie Girt in Fetlar - found its way into the Orkney and Shetland RCAHMS Inventories.

The Scottish National Dictionary proposes an obscure Norwegian link for the word 'treb', while Marwick thought it Celtic and suggested it was related to Welsh tref. Neither is entirely convincing and it is perhaps safer to regard it as of pre-Norse indigenous, putatively

non-Indo-European, origin. The word also appears as Trave or Thrave, while the name Gaisty or Gairsty (from garcf-stad;) is also found applied to the same feature. Trebs were regarded with superstition and ascribed to the 'trows'; they certainly are not part of the Norse landscape and must be relics of an older one. Sometimes they have been utilised as convenient divisions between tunships but more commonly these ignore them. This is the more surprising as the better-preserved trebs are the biggest upstanding linear features in the Orkney countryside.

The Orkney trebs seem to be entirely of earth; they are seldom less than 4m wide and while under normal cultivation they will have been reduced in height to a half-metre or so, some lengths such as the Muckle Gairsty in North Ronaldsay are not far short of two metres. One well-preserved Stronsay example has a ditch. These are therefore linear earthworks

on a scale comparable with Wansdyke or Bokerly Dyke, and it is to be hoped that future research will establish their place in the prehistoric landscape.

RCAHMS 1980

above Garsnie Geo HY 4332 3276 to 4333 3263 HY43SW

Running from the cliff edge at Garsnie Geo and gradually diminishing southwards for 130m until all trace is lost, an earthen bank, some 5m wide and up to 0.4m high, containing a few stones.

(R G Lamb (RCAHMS 1980) notes that 'treb dykes' in Orkney appear to be entirely of earth and seldom less than 4 m wide; while under cultivation most have been reduced to a height of about 0.5 m, some lengths are not far short of 2 m in height. As such, they are linear earthworks on a scale comparable with Wansdyke or Bokerly Dyke, and it is hoped that future research will show them to be pre-historic. Trebs were regarded with superstition and ascribed to the 'trows'; they certainly are not part of the Norse landscape and must be relics of an older one.)

RCAHMS 1982, visited August 1982

(OR 769)