TAP Field Report No. 5 A survey of Shetland's gallow hills Joris ...

TAP Field Report No. 5Hills (252m). The summit of Gallow Hill liesat slightly over 180m ODN. Again, the onlyindication for the former presence of gallowsis the name itself. The only thing that givesus a small hint about the possible location ofthe gallows is the Gallow Burn, which has itssource on the slope between Gallow Hill andLadies Hill, and runs down to the west.Archaeological sites around the Gallow Hillinclude a scheduled cairn at the base of LadiesHill (Historic Scotland site index nr. 3558)and two scheduled cairns in Burravoe (indexnr. 3469), both sites located c. 1.5km from thesummit of Gallow Hill. The panoramic photo (Fig. 54) was takenfrom the slope of Gallow Hill about 600mnorthwest of the actual summit (which wasmistaken for the nearby Riding Hill), abovethe source of Gallow Burn. The viewshed (Fig.21) represents a cumulative viewshed fromive observation points around the summit,and hence does not entirely correspond to theview on the photo.The view from the summit of Gallow Hillmainly extends to the west, the view towardsthe east being largely obscured by the nearbyhills. Towards the southwest, the view coversmuch of Aithsting and the Walls peninsula.Due to the moderate slope at the top of thehill, the western hillside is hardly visible fromthe summit (as opposed to the panoramicphotograph, which was taken from the hillside),but it is possible to see the village ofBrae at the base, as well as Busta Voe andthe eastern part of Muckle Roe. Behind MavisGrind, one looks out over St. Magnus Bay, withsome hilltops on Papa Stour being visible tothe WSW. The horizon on the open sea lies atc. 52km distance. Towards the northwest, theview covers the uplands of Northmavine, withRonas Hill towering above the rest. Towardsthe north, the view includes Sullom Voe,opening out to Yell Sound.8) ‘Gulga’, Gluss, Northmavine , MainlandHU 3379 7660? Figure 21 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Brae.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).This site was discussed by Brian Smith(2006). Apparently, Da Scord o Gulga is ‘thename of a notch in the hillside just south ofa hill with a cairn on top of it’. Smith believedthat the name Gulga might then refer to thehill with the cairn. Jakobsen (1897, 118)mentions a hill called Golga in Northmavine,but unfortunately, he does not give a preciselocation. Neither Golga nor the Scord o Gulgais marked on any edition of the OS map andboth names seem to be of very local character.However, judging from Smith’s description,Da Scord o Gulga may well be the same as HamaraScord near South Gluss. The hill wouldthen be the one west of South Gluss, which16