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

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TAP Field Report No. 5lieved Shetland’s parishes to be ‘very, very oldindeed’ (Clouston 1914: 432).The thing-element in the name of some ofthe parishes indicates a Norse origin. It hasbeen noted before that the thing-parishesare all located in the central part of Mainland,which lacks clear geographical boundaries(Donaldson 1958: 130. Smith 2009: 41 f.). Tothe names still used today (Delting, Nesting,Lunnasting, Aithsting, Sandsting, Tingwall),two more names can be added, which appearin a document of 1321: Þvæitaþing andRauðarþing. The former may have been locatedin the west of Shetland, possibly in thepresent parish of Walls, while the latter mayhave been in, or even correspond to Northmavine(Jakobsen 1897: 102. Smith 2009: 42).The name Neipnating, recorded in the early16th century and in 1628, probably refers toNesting (Smith 2009: 41).Smith (2009: 42) points out that there areno thing-parishes in Orkney, and that Shetland’sparish things may hence have beenformed around 1300, after Shetland’s separationfrom the Earldom of Orkney. He doesagree, though, that Shetland may once havehad the same, symmetrical division into quarters,eighths and thirds known from Norway.The former division of Fetlar into three smalldistricts was still recalled by a local lady at theend of the 19th century (Jakobsen 1897: 117),although it must have been outdated for manycenturies by then. A Norwegian document of1490 mentions the districts Vogaiordwngh(‘the quarter of the voes’) in the west andMawedes otting (‘the eighth at the narrowisthmus’) in the north of Shetland (Smith2009: 43). Although the names themselvescan be identiied as Walls and Northmavine– parishes still existing today – Smith stressesthat the parish division and borders may stillhave been very different.Another recurring name, which refers toan older judicial system, is the ‘Herra’ (fromOld Norse hérað, meaning county or disrict)(Jakobsen 1897: 117. Smith 2006. Smith2009: 43). The name occurs four times inShetland: in Yell, Fetlar, Lunnasting and Tingwall.The Herra in Yell now refers to a small Figure 45 Location of ‘ting-’ and ‘herra’-placenames and gallow hills (see ig. 44 for legend).Marked sites: 1 Tingwall; 2 Sand; 3 Aith; 4 Neap; 5Lunna; 6 Dale; 7 Herra, Lunnasting; 8 Herra, Fetlar;9 Herra, Yell.area on the west side of Whale Firth. It wasformerly called the ‘Oot Herra’, as opposed tothe ‘In Herra’, which lay at the opposite sideof Whale Firth. The Herra in Fetlar refers tothe settlement area to the north and east ofPapil Water. Again, the area is divided intoan Upper Herra and the Lower Herra, eachincluding a few farmsteads and located about1km apart. The Herra in Lunnasting lies at thesouth end of Vidlin Voe, between the villagesVidlin, Gillsbreck and Orgill. In Tingwall, thename appears in a slightly different form: thearea to the north and west of Tingwall Lochis referred to as the Harray in a document of1525 (Stewart 1987: 130). The name survives30
Gallow hillsas Herrisdale (Park) and Herrislea (House /Hill) in Veensgarth.It is generally assumed that the old thingparishes,as well as the héruð each had theirown, local assembly. The only assembly sitewhich can be located with some certainty is atTingwall (from Old Norse Þingvöllr, ‘the ieldsof the parliament’). According to the tradition,the assembly met at the islet called Law TingHolm, at the north side of the lake (Coolen &Mehler 2010: 6-9). There is a very close spatialrelationship between the assembly site,the parish church and the Gallow Hill: theholm is located only 340m from the churchand exactly 1km from the summit of GallowHill.It seems logical to believe that the localassemblies of Delting, Nesting, Lunnasting,Aithsting and Sandsting were held in theDale, Neap, Lunna, Aith and Sand respectively(Smith 2009: 41). Sand and Lunna each hosta Medieval parish church, while Neap is atleast close to the former parish church ofKirkabister. There are old church sites in Aithand Dale too, but they are not documented asparish churches. However, none of these allegedthing-sites is close to any of the gallowssites (Fig. 45). As for the herra-names, thereis an interesting association of the Herra witha parish church and a Gallow Hill in Fetlar, allbeing located within 2km from each other.The Herra in Mid Yell is about 3km from Holsigarth,but as said, this site is very dubious.Although there are several pre-Reformationchapel and church sites known in the vicinity,none of them is recorded as a parish church.The same applies to the chapel site in Vidlin,which is located about 0.5km from the Herrain Lunnasting.One could argue that the places of executionmight have been located near the boundaryof a judicial district rather than close to thecourt site. In Medieval and Early Modern Europe,gallows were often erected near districtboundaries for both practical and symbolicreasons (e.g. Piech 2010: 314. Mol 2007, 281ff.). Reynolds (2009, 219-27) has describedthe strong association between Anglo-Saxonexecution cemeteries and Early Medievalhundred boundaries. Since we know littleabout the Medieval parish division of Shetland,it is almost impossible to reconstructthe parish boundaries. However, no matterwhere the boundaries were, the area betweenthe alleged thing-sites mentioned above iscompletely devoid of known gallows sites. Ofthe present thing-parishes, only Tingwall andDelting include a gallows site. Although theformer is close to the border of Whiteness, itdoes not overlook any access route betweenthe two parishes. Moreover, Whiteness is nothing-parish. The Gallow Hill of Brae in Deltingseems more convincing: it is close to theborder of Northmavine, and everybody whowould cross Mavis Grind and the wider isthmusof Brae would have been confronted withthe sight of the gallows.There is, however, an interesting relationshipbetween the gallows sites and post-Medieval parish borders (Fig. 46). The latterwere taken from a modern map showing theparishes listed in the Old Statistical Account(1791-99). 31 Alternatively, the parishes canalso be modelled based on the descriptionsof Pitcairn and Brand and the location of Medievalparish churches. Assuming that eachparish church lies more or less in the centreof its associated parish, the parishes can bemodelled as Thiessen polygons (Fig. 47). Ofcourse this is a highly theoretical and perhapssimplistic approach, since it does not accountfor the actual geography. Surely, the actualdivision was more complex. However, theThiessen polygons show strong similaritieswith the parishes listed in the Old StatisticalAccount, and as long as we acknowledge thetheoretical character of this approach, thereseems to be some justiication for it.At irst sight it seems striking that there isnever more than one gallows site per parish,except in the already discussed case ofTingwall. However, this is simply a consequenceof the already discussed correlationbetween the gallows sites and Medieval parishchurches. The Thiessen polygons show31
Page 1 and 2: TAP Field Report No. 5A survey ofSh
Page 3 and 4: Gallow hillsTable of contentsIntrod
Page 5 and 6: Gallow hills
Page 7 and 8: Gallow hillssite’s biography and
Page 10 and 11: TAP Field Report No. 5to the northw
Page 12 and 13: TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 11 Top
Page 14 and 15: TAP Field Report No. 5 Figure 17 V
Page 16 and 17: TAP Field Report No. 5Hills (252m).
Page 18 and 19: TAP Field Report No. 59) Watch Hill
Page 20: TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 28 Top
Page 23 and 24: Gallow hillsFigure 36 Topography of
Page 25 and 26: Gallow hillsWilgi Geos should proba
Page 27 and 28: Gallow hillsboth from the sea and l
Page 29: Gallow hillsFigure 44 Location of p
Page 33 and 34: Gallow hillsof the discussed sites
Page 35 and 36: Gallow hillsturn are strongly conne
Page 37 and 38: Gallow hillsNotes1Brian Smith, foru
Page 39 and 40: Gallow hillsCrawford, O.G.S. 1922.
Page 41 and 42: Gallow hillsAppendix IHistorically
Page 43 and 44: Gallow hills‘Luckymenis Ness’ (
Page 45 and 46: Gallow hillsto be naild to the gall
Page 47 and 48: Gallow hills47
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