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

Gallow hillsWilgi Geos should probably not be includedin the list of gallows sites in Shetland. It waslisted for completeness, but was not includedin the following analysis.Comparison of the sitesFigure 39 Topography of the Wilgi Geos, NorthRoe. (Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright/database right 2010).15) Wilgi Geos, North Roe, MainlandHU 3444 9163The Wilgi Geos is an inlet at the northerncoast of North Roe (Fig. 39). It has been suggested,that the name Wilgi Geos (very similarto the Knowe of Wilga in Cunningsburgh)might also be derived from Old Norse gálgi.The Wilgi Geos is a remote place, and notparticularly visible. Although boats mightpass entering or leaving Sand Voe, the gallowswould not have been visible unless they wereplaced at the head of one of the neighbouringpromontories, or indeed higher up the hill. Inthis case, it would be surprising that the inletinstead of the promontory was named afterthe gallows.The site is located 3km from the pre-ReformationSt. Magnus church in Houll, which,as we shall see, does constitute a commoncharacteristic of Shetland’s gallows. However,there would have been more suitable placesfor this gruesome purpose closer to the settlementat Houll.Apart from the name, nothing indicates,that the site was used as a place of execution.Even if the name derives from gálgi, it may benamed after an overhanging rock. I agree withSmith (pers. comm., 6 June 2011) that theAlthough Smith (2006) highlighted the highvisibility of all the gallows sites, a comparisonof the viewsheds shows that there are in factlarge differences. The total area, which can beseen from each site, varies from less than 40to almost 3,000km² (Fig. 40). The most visiblesite is the Knowe o Wilga, while – surprisinglyperhaps – the Gallow Hill of Scalloway isleast visible.The huge difference in the visible area ismainly caused by the visibility of the opensea. The sea can be seen from all sites, and inall cases sea surfaces account for more thanhalf of the visible area; in 10 out of 12 cases, iteven accounts for more than 90 % of the visiblearea. The total land surface visible fromeach site varies from 16 to 134km². Again, theGallow Hill of Scalloway has the lowest score,but the ranking of the other sites is completelydifferent. The dubious site of Gluss overlooksthe largest land surface, followed by the GallowHills of Brae and Fetlar.However, these numbers are somewhatmisleading; since the area, which is coveredby a certain angle, gets larger with increasingdistance, even a small strip of the sea visibleat the horizon represents a huge area. Moreover,due to the curvature of the earth, thedistance to the horizon is much larger fromhigher elevated points than from a point closeto sea level. This again leads to an exponentialincrease of the visible area towards the horizonfor higher elevated sites.Although it is amazing just how far one cansee from most sites, it is of course unrealisticthat the gallows would have been visible from40km distance; even though the site itselfmay have been visible, the gallows and theirinvoluntary companions were much too smallto be seen with the naked eye. Hence, it wouldbe interesting to analyse the visibility of the25