<< Our Photo Pages >> Dingieshowe - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Sunday, 11 December 2005 Page Views: 7336
Multi-periodSite Name: Dingieshowe Alternative Name: Dingishowe, Dingy's Howe, Dingy's-how, Duncan's-heCountry: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Kirkwall Nearest Village: Toab
Map Ref: HY54760330
Latitude: 58.914593N Longitude: 2.787211W
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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Dingieshowe, HY50SW 7, was considered part of a bigger settlement at the end of the 18th century as they considered the stony hillocks beneath the present sand dunes between here and Deerness to have been buildings also. The broch mound still stands over seven metres high but Petrie and Farrer in 1860 only found a building six feet high on the sandy knoll, finding clay and partially vitrified sand ('cramp') beneath the floor that would seem to rule any continuance of this round house below. Only late pottery was found, so this looks like re-use of an earlier structure - evidence of widespread burning beneath the foundations seen as evidence of sacrifice being perhaps reason for prior abandonment instead (the collection included fragments of Corded Ware). Unofficial digging in the 1920s exposed a short length of drystone wall/ing and a kitchen midden south side. In 1964 deposits of shell were seen on both S and W slopes. What looks to be a bank at the north to northwest may only be from sand quarrying.
Coming to the broch by the farmroad is easiest as there is a kind of platform there. I think the short wall-sections are gardenification like that which 'lost' us Peerie Howe further along the track. From this side you see a large excavation on the side of the broch (unfortunately all the areas of digging are now covered by turf or. on the east a sea of grassy tussocks) and a kind of grassy track up the side. On top the interior is all hollowed out. Looking over to the left is a distinct rectangular hollow. If not simply a later excavation pit this looks a likely intramural feature, either a chamber or the beginning of a stair. At the seaward side are further excavation traces. Apart from the flat 'platform' trackside the rest of the mound drops away in front of you (perhaps the mound was once at the end of a distinct tongue of land). At the other side is another track going down, narrower and sharper and steeper. From the bottom there is the sense of ditches or banks between broch and the first sandy hillocks.
Presuming that the tracks from the farmroad to the dunes are 'modern' there is a likelihood that anything proceeding the late broch structure will be be connected with Peerie Howe. Though because of burnt stones in the latter it has been seen as a burnt mound it strikes me as possible that it was subject to the same environmental catastrophe seen at the broch site viz. signs of a major conflagration. Could the stony hillocks reported in the Orkney Statistical Account include the area that became a gravel quarry ? And what of the shell-midden at the cliff base just past this, below Sandaiken ??
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