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

TAP Field Report No. 5could try to escape after his trial; if he managedto reach it safely, his life was preserved,but anybody was free to pursue and kill himon his way there. There is a similar story inTingwall, featuring either the steeple of TingwallKirk (Brand 1701 [1883]: 184) or the socalled Murder Stone at Asta (Fojut 2006: 116)as the sanctuary, to which a convict could tryto lee.All structures on the hills north of Baltasoundthat were mentioned by Low andHibbert are in fact prehistoric burial cairns.Some of them were excavated by J. Hunt andR. Tate in 1865 (Hunt 1866. Tate 1866), afteran initial ind of human remains and soapstonevessels on the Muckle Heog the previousyear (Roberts 1865) had awakened theirinterest. Tate (1866: 342) also mentions thetradition of the place of execution in his report,which allows us to identify Hanger Heogas the Muckle Heog.As Smith (2009: 38) rightly states, ‘everystep in Hibbert’s reconstruction is fantasy’.Both Hibbert’s and Tate’s accounts seem toheavily rely on Low’s, and neither of themcites any contemporary source to conirm thetradition. There is no archaeological evidenceto support the tradition, at least if we do notattach too much value to Hibbert’s interpretationof the human remains from the so calledHouse of Justice. Of course it needs to bequestioned if the laymen, who had excavatedthe cairns at Muckle Heog and the House ofJustice even before Tate’s expedition, wouldhave noticed any difference between Medieval,deviant burials and a prehistoric communalgrave. Finally, the place name HangerHeog is suspicious too and might refer to asteep, overhanging hill rather than a gallowssite (Smith 2006). However, given the traditionand the location of the site, it should notbe altogether dismissed as a possible place ofexecution.The viewshed represents a cumulativeviewshed of the summit of Muckle Heog andone point in each of the four adjacent gridcells of the DTM (Fig. 37). The site offers agood view of Unst both towards the north andsouth, including Balta Sound, Haroldswickand Hermaness. The southern part of Unstis largely obstructed by the Hill of Caldwickand Valla Field, but interestingly, the summitof Gallow Hill is visible. Towards the south,the view includes the northern coast of Fetlar,as well as the summit of Fetlar’s Gallow Hill.Towards the southwest, the view reaches tosome hilltops on Yell and Mainland. The opensea can be seen towards the (south)east,west, north and northeast; the horizon lies c.45km away.14) ‘Gallow Hill’, Marrister, WhalsayHU 5480 6388?As Smith reported in an internet forum 28 ,he was informed about another Gallow Hill atMarrister on Whalsay after his lecture in 2006.However, the name is not marked on any mapand could so far not be veriied. Perhaps it isanother name for Setter Hill, since this is theonly distinct hill near Marrister (Fig. 38). Thesite was mapped, but the evidence is consideredtoo weak to attempt further analysis (includinga viewshed), as long as the name andlocation of the site are not conirmed.Figure 38 Topography of Setter Hill (GallowHill?), Whalsay. (Data: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).24