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

Gallow hillsFigure 36 Topography of Muckle Heog, Baltasound,Unst. (Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crowncopyright /database right 2010).ODN. Although Smith (pers. comm., May 302011) is now sceptical about this site, severalsources recount the tradition that this sitewas used as a place of execution.In 1774, George Low wrote about a sitecalled Hanger Heog. He was shown a ‘heapof stones’ on the top, which was ‘called bytradition a place of execution’ (Low 1879).At the foot of the hill was another stone heap,‘called the House of Justice, from which oneascends by steps to the former. Tradition says,that whatever criminal ascended the steps ofHanger Heog never came down alive’. The sitepresented a key site for the reconstructionof the ancient judicial system in Shetland toSamuel Hibbert in 1822 (p. 406). His accountseems to be based on Low’s, since he usesvery similar words. He adds that ‘in conirmationof the account, two bodies, supposedto have been executed criminals, were, aboutsixty years ago, found buried in disorder nearthe base of the lower heap of stones’. Surprisingly,Hibbert (1822: 269) interprets the siteas a Scandinavian temple elsewhere, erectedby the irst Norse settlers upon their arrivalin Haroldswick. He also believed the placeof execution on Hanger Heog was associatedwith what he interpreted as an assembly sitemarked by three concentric circles at CrussaField, about 1.5km to the west (Hibbert 1822:405 f.). 27 Between the alleged assembly siteand the place of execution there was anothersimilar monument, which according toHibbert was a sanctuary, to which a convict Figure 37 Viewshedfrom Muckle Heog, Unst.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM:Ordnance Survey. © Crowncopyright /database right2010).23