Frotoft – Rousay Remembered

Loss of the Rousay Post Boat

Max Fletcher — Thu, 14 May 2020 15:07:39 +0000

In December 1825 James Sinclair of Newhouse was drowned when his boat sank off Scabra Head. Also lost in the accident were 13-year-old Alexander Mainland of Tratland and one of his elder half-brothers, James or Robert, through his father’s first marriage to Margaret Sinclair. In 1893 the sea was to claim another member of the Sinclair family. James the elder, then in his 75th year…

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Taversoe Tuick – Part 4

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 15:26:57 +0000

IN PHOTOGRAPHS Today Taversoe Tuick, and the island’s other sites of archaeological interest are now under the wing of Historic Environment Scotland – and are all free to access. Below is a series of photos taken in January 2018.

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Taversoe Tuick – Part 3

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 14:30:57 +0000

IN VERSE James K Yorston and his like-named son have to take great credit for being involved in the excavation of many of Rousay’s archaeological sites. Evidence of this is due to the fact they were elected Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Their work has been admired by many – and one visitor to Rousay was moved to write a few verses after their exploration of Taversoe Tuick.

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Taversoe Tuick – Part 2

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 14:07:41 +0000

EXCAVATIONS ON BEHALF OF H.M. OFFICE OF WORKS AT TAIVERSO TUICK, TRUMLAND, ROUSAY. by WALTER G. GRANT, F.S.A.Scot. The discovery of Neolithic burial chambers at Taiverso Tuick in 1898 has been described by Lady Burroughs in a manuscript now preserved at Trumland House, and in our Proceedings, vol. xxxvii. pp. 73-82, by Sir William Turner. The discovery was an incident in the excavation…

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Taversoe Tuick – Part 1

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 13:17:03 +0000

AN ACCOUNT OF A CHAMBERED CAIRN AND CREMATION CISTS AT TAVERSOE TUICK, NEAR TRUMLAND HOUSE, IN THE ISLAND OF ROUSAY, ORKNEY, EXCAVATED BY LIEUTENANT-GENERAL TRAILL BURROUGHS, C.B., 0F ROUSAY, IN 1898. by SIR WILLIAM TURNER, K.C.B., LL.D., D.C.L., F.S.A. Scot. In the month of May 1898 I received from Lieutenant-General Traill Burroughs, C.B., of Rousay, Orkney, a box containing some…

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Nears

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 11:21:45 +0000

The records for Nearhouse, or Nears as it is better known, go back centuries with the first known tenant listed there as John Sabiston in 1654. There is a large gap in the Rousay records until they reveal Rowland Craigie farming the land there from 1785 to 1796. The next tenant was William Craigie (Rowland’s son, born in February 1785) from 1820 to 1823, and in 1829 Magnus Marwick and his wife…

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Blackhammer Cairn

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 09:14:33 +0000

LONG STALLED CAIRN AT BLACKHAMMER, ROUSAY, ORKNEY. by J. Graham Callander, LL.D., F.S.A.Scot., Director of the National Museum, and Walter G. Grant, F.S.A.Scot. Before this cairn was excavated it was just an oblong heap of stones covered with a growth of grass and heather, more suggestive of the ruins of a little farmhouse than of what it turned out to be, one of the most interesting of…

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Hunclett

Max Fletcher — Wed, 06 May 2020 08:32:22 +0000

Hunclett – or ‘Hooklet’ as it is pronounced – was first mentioned in the old Orkney Rentals, dating back to 1492 with subsequent volumes ranging through the 1500s. In those days it was known as Ovir [or Upper] and Nether Howclet, the former, according to Hugh Marwick, is represented by the Hunclett we know today, and the latter being identified by the present farm of Nears, or Nearhouse – a name…

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Castlehill, Irso, Quoyjenny, Crody, Germount

Max Fletcher — Tue, 05 May 2020 16:10:40 +0000

Castlehill in Frotoft consisted of three houses, built by James Low for Nearhouse tenant Malcolm Corsie at no cost to the island’s estate in about 1840. Hereabouts was an adjacent field named Ulie Bogie. According to Hugh Marwick in his Place-Names of Rousay the field was perhaps so-named due to its resemblance to the shape of a ulie bogie, a skin vessel for containing oil. The first residents on…

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Crusday

Max Fletcher — Tue, 05 May 2020 15:41:20 +0000

Crusday, Upper, Mid, and Nether, were dwellings situated on the hill slope above the public school at Frotoft. David Mainland was one of three brothers who were born in Frotoft, in 1770 or thereabouts but whose parents are not on record, the other brothers being William and Alexander, and they lived at Tratland. William featured in the recent page regarding his ‘Trafalgar Medal.’…

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