Quandale – Rousay Remembered

Inner Quandale

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:56:10 +0000

Inner Quandale was the smallest district in Rousay, with four farms. The divisions were the dyke at Whome and the dyke from the Sinians of Cutclaws to the main road. In the 1841 census Pow was the largest farm, with George Reid as tenant. George was born in 1808 died in 1900. He was evicted out of Quandale, so he went to Sourin, but found no houses available. He found a site and built Westdale.

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Quandale Views

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:26:10 +0000

This cairn is at High Robbie, the name given to a huge quarry site on the hill known as Moolie. Higher up is Twelve Hours Tower, a prominent part of the hill seen throughout Wasbister, looking at which the folks who lived there knew the time of day. An interesting feature of Quandale’s past is this ‘sheep dip.’ The structure is basically a narrowing stone-walled channel with a flagged…

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Old Parish School, Quandale

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 12:50:00 +0000

The Old Parish School served the Quandale and Westness communities. At the time of the 1841 census, carried out on June 7th of that year, the population numbered 214 souls, which included 41 children between the ages of 5 and 13. The school building was centrally situated for the two communities it served, sited on high ground above the old hill dyke. Its location afforded a splendid view over…

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Flintersquoy

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 10:32:24 +0000

Flintersquoy was an old croft situated above the public road between Munsey and the Quandale school. In the Rousay Birth Register of 1830 it was spelled Flintryquoy. James Gibson was a blacksmith, and this is where he worked in the mid-1800’s. In 1841 he paid rent of £2 2s 3d and in 1843 it stood at £3 3s 0d. He was the son of Alexander Gibson and Margaret Craigie, born in 1798.

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Munzie

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 10:16:12 +0000

The image above is a section of a ‘Plan of the Township of Quendale in the Island of Rousay, the property of George W. Traill of Viera’. Drawn by G. Robson, Rousay c1850. [Courtesy of the Firth Family of Vacquoy] Munzie was a park and house-site on the lower slope of Mansemass Hill above the public road in Quandale. All that remains of the buildings today is a single site, outside the dyke…

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Stourmeadow

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 09:34:32 +0000

Stourmeadow was the name applied to a house and large park of rough pasture on the upper side of the public road in Quandale, just beyond the Quandale dyke from Wasbister. A Rousay Birth Register entry of 1822 records the house being spelled Staurameirie. As you can see from the photos, there is little evidence of the house left. In the census of 1841, the house was called Stourmary and…

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Knapknowes

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:59:56 +0000

As well as being tenant of Tofts, Magnus Murray paid an annual rent of £3 for Knapknowes in 1841. The old house at Quandale was situated beside the Westness dyke, which ran between the road below the school and the clifftop at the Sinians of Cutclaws. In 1843 David Craigie was tenant of both Knapknowes and Cutclaws, paying £7 for both sites. David moved to Kirkwall in 1853.

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Upper, Mid & Nether Quandale

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:52:48 +0000

Mid Quandale was the name of a croft situated in the vicinity of the buildings of Windbreak and Tofts at Quandale. It was amalgamated with Nether Quandale before 1841, and the census of that year reveals that members of the Craigie family were living there. The annual rent was £15, but this was lowered to £11 the following year. Head of the household was 60-year-old Hugh Craigie.

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Dale & Stirling

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:27:29 +0000

Dale was an old house-site in Quandale about 250 yards down from the public road and on the bank of a stream. In 1841 it was occupied by George Flaws and his family, having moved from nearby Breek. George was then a 55-year-old farmer, his wife Margaret was also 55 years of age, and daughters Janet and Jane, were 20 and 15 years old. In 1845, during the laird’s clearance of Quandale…

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Hestival & North House

Max Fletcher — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:02:24 +0000

Hestival was the name of an old house in Quandale, about 500 yards northeast of Tofts. In Old Norse the word hesta-vollr means horse field. A rental of 1841 tells of Marjorie Irvine paying £1 2s 3d annual tenancy. The census of 1851 records Mary Randall, a 55-year-old unmarried pauper living at Hestival – before the clearance. The 1861 census tell us Mary was living at ‘Quendale’ and in 1871…

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