<< Our Photo Pages >> Hillhead - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Friday, 29 April 2005 Page Views: 5365
Multi-periodSite Name: Hillhead Alternative Name: Hillhead HouseCountry: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Kirkwall
Map Ref: HY44720855
Latitude: 58.960555N Longitude: 2.962817W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Village or Settlement in Orkney
The main feature in the two fields below Hillhead House is the enclosure HY50NW 6 (at HY44720855). But under Hillhead I would place also HY50NW 12 (at HY44730866) and HY50NW 13 (at about HY4408). These between them have produced four out of Orkney's total of fifteen carved stone balls, the same number as from Skara Brae. The enclosure had one of sandstone (formerly in NMAS collection as HH417 ) and another was found a yard down and two yards away from a former well/spring during drainage (Hunterian Museum B.1914.357). Of the last two one resides at the Hunterian Museum (B.1914.356) but the what happened to the other, carved of diorite from Hillswick in Shetland, isn't known. They are designated Hillhhead House but have the alternative name of Hillhead of Crantit (HY45090927) above Highland Park Distillery which is a different place, much nearer town (though a large depression to one side at HY45090924 was depicted as an earthwork and a 'quarry' to the other HY45720933, and there is a curious rectangular feature in the 'field' over the road). If these balls are truly associated with this site that would put it back at least as far as the Bronze Age. On the other hand, on the basis of the little I know presently, an archaeologist friend is inclined to put it much later and relates it to pre-broch Clickhimin or possibly The Howe 3/4 (or, even worse, amorphous post-broch).
In 1882 a large circular mound was to thought render the area useless for farming owing to the stones, but technology has twice made incursion possible. In 1946 it is down as a fort bisected by the drystane wall coming down from alongside the road to the house. This was roughly 75 yards by 55, aligned North/South with a single earthen rampart but no apparent evidence for an entrance as most features had been levelled. Mostly it lies in the Well Park field, the present well being assumed to be on the site of the destroyed well/spring. When the O.S. came by in 1964 they described it as an enclosure in the process of being ploughed out, though they did report a smaller earthbank within the rampart. This came to mind when I heard that geophyics had indicated a 70m diameter double-ring near the Viking sites in Orphir.
My first observations were made from way over on the road to Orphir as I could find it easier on the map from there - once found you never lose it all the way around to Scapa beach and New Scapa Road below. The Well Park section then stands out because of the numerous banks and dark areas of exposed soil. Over the wall looks blank. But one day the light struck just right, illuminating the whole of the enclosure and showing the rampart both sides. The field directly below the house looks pristine, the best place to start looking for evidence of the site's true nature as the Well Park field looks a mess. To my eye it looks as if first came the enclosure, then some feature was constructed on/through the Well Park edge and from that time or later linear features appear to the Kirkwall side of this.
To find the site take the Southern Isles road until you pass the Tradespark junction and you will see the grounds of Hillhead house at the top of the rise to the right, overlooking Scapa beach. From here you can see all the way into Kirkwall and right up Scapa Flow too. Even so the the lack of a full circle of view from the enclosure is a reason not to see this as a fort or broch (Borrowstonehill screams out to be one etymologically at least). There are two fields you could enter to reach that of Well Park. I chose the first one possible, which does have the drawback of crossing a wide burn (the Crantit I presume). From here I could see two monstrosities side by side, a tin roofed hut and a big concrete plug, one of which must be the 'new' well. Until I am fully equipped I shall not enter the field itself.
Retracing your steps, from the corner of the grounds where the road is continue anothe thirty-odd meters and on your left a slim slab projecting from the drystane wall is a stile. This is for access to a well (HY44970848) that appears on the 1882 map but not the present one. Looking over you see a wide white slab extending from wallbase level (the slab is 0.9m across, though another stone may take this 'lintel' to 1.2m) and 0.8m below that a funnel shape [passage?] 0.6m across going forward at the field's ground level to peter out after 1.5m. I snuck myself into the space beween drystane wall and barbwire fence. The funnel shape is wall-lined (includind a few slabs) and might have gone lower once. It proved a tight squeeze to shuffle along enough to get it all in frame, the camera's batteries went before I bent over far enough to take the whole of the interior. Leant over far enough with the barbwire's support to see a back wall. Looked more like a chamber than a well. Brown stones and I thought there was a curve, but not sure of my orientation at the time in order to say where in the structure (though the word apse came to mind). There was a place lower down the hill I could have gone under the fence but the only other apparent way in, a simpler way, is from the far corner going all way around the field.
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