UHI Thesis - pdf download summary The Origins and Early Development of the Parochial System in the Orkney Earldom Gibbon, Sarah Jane DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AWARDED BY OU/ABERDEEN) Award date: 2006 Awarding institution: The University of Edinburgh Link URL to thesis in UHI Research Database General rights and useage policy Copyright,IP and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the UHI Research Database are retained by the author, users must recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement, or without prior permission from the author. 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A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 14 th June 2006 Orkney College, UHI Millennium Institute Abstract The thesis uses a landscape history approach, drawing on existing records and augmenting these with extensive observations in the field, towards understanding the location and context of ecclesiastical sites and parish boundaries in Orkney. An historiographical assessment of previous work, and of the evidence on which it was based, prefaces the detailed re-examination of the individual chapel sites in their landscape setting. The patterns that emerge from this study are compared with selected examples in Shetland and Caithness, and related to the wider European context. The present study significantly places parish formation in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, whereas the established view had held that the parishes originated in an early pre-Norse context. The chronology suggested is an initial period of private chapel building within districts definable as settlement areas, from the middle to late eleventh century, leading from the middle twelfth century onwards to the definition of parishes and designation or foundation of parish churches. The designation of parish churches and creation of parishes is seen as a direct result of the imposition of tithe. Certain pre-parochial churches of higher status may have administered a form of pastoral care in larger pre- parochial units. By examining the chapels in their settlement context, the extent of several of these larger units has been postulated. i Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors Raymond Lamb, Barbara Crawford and Jane Downes for their support, guidance and encouragement. Special thanks go to Barbara for introducing me to Norway and for answering my endless questions, and to Raymond for accompanying me on my Caithness fieldwork. Orkney Archaeological Trust must be thanked for their support and for providing unlimited access to the SMR and their library; I am indebted to Julie Gibson, Nick Card and Judith Robertson for their expert advice and assistance. Particularly, I would like to thank Judith Robertson for helping with the inventory maps. Donna Heddle has been extremely kind taking time to teach me Latin and Old Norse and giving support throughout the research. I also wish to thank John Wood and Carol Christiansen from Highland and Shetland SMRs respectively. Thanks go to the staff at Orkney College for providing me with resources and especially Mike Berg for his patience with all my computer problems and for helping me print the thesis. I am grateful to the Orkney Library and Archive where I spent almost a year studying before and during the Foot and Mouth outbreak. Special thanks go to Alison Fraser, Phil Astley and David Mackie for their assistance. Shetland and Wick Archives must also be thanked for their help. Keeping in contact with the academic world outside Orkney has been possible through the help of Bobby Leslie and Maureen Drever and through correspondence with Steve Driscoll, Davie Brown, Alan Macniven, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Simon Taylor, David Dumville, Ray Moore, Carol Christiansen and Shetland Archive. I am most thankful to the landowners who permitted me to visit sites on their land and to those people who provided information and local traditions. There are too many to name ii individually but special thanks go to Mr Ball, Lambaness; Messrs Bichan, Swanbister; Mr G Brown, Colligarth; Mr R Corser, Burrian; Mrs Craigie, Clestrain; Mr D Drever, Newark; Mrs L Hagan, Skaill; Mr and Mrs J Hamilton, The Meadows; Mr A Harcus, formerly of Houseby; The Hepburns, Linton; Mr and Mrs Hewison, Gretna Green; Messrs Leslie, Lopness; Mr J Mowat, Ferryhouse; The Patersons, Nessbreck; Mr Pirie, formerly of Orakirk; Mr Pottinger, Tuquoy; Mr and Mrs Seatter, Noup; Mr and Mrs Seatter, Kirbist; Mr and Mrs Slater, Skaill; Mr D Tait, Campston; Mr D Towrie, Westbrough; Messrs J and E Walls, Emohruo; Mrs E Wishart, Biggings. I owe a debt of gratitude to Rod McCullagh, Barbara Crawford, Eric Walls, Raymond Lamb, Paul Keldie, Pamela Campbell, Robert Gibbon, and John and Barbara Grieve for accompanying me on site visits, and to Sally Foster, Nick Card, Robert Gibbon and John Grieve for providing information on sites that I was unable to visit. Thanks also go to Tim Stevens and Chris Lowe for providing the opportunity to excavate medieval cemeteries and to Chris Lowe, John Hunter and Ronan Toolis for allowing access to their excavations. I also wish to thank my friends and family without whose support and encouragement I could not have completed this thesis and especially Tom Rendall and Anne Brundle. I am deeply indebted to Liz Gilmore for her incredible patience and for kindly giving up so much of her time to proofreading the thesis. I am extremely grateful to my husband, Robert, for all his assistance, for his patience and for taking care of me this past year. Finally, and most of all, I would like to thank my parents, John and Barbara Grieve, for their endless encouragement and for nurturing my passion for Orkney’s history. It is to them that I dedicate this thesis. iii Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iv List of Tables x List of Figures xi List of Appendices xii Map of Orkney Showing Ecclesiastical Sites xiii Introduction 1 Chapter One - Theoretical Approach and Methodology 4 1.1 Theoretical Overview 4 1.1.1 Archaeology and History 7 1.1.2 Landscape-based Methodologies 9 1.1.3 Summary 13 1.2 Landscape-based Approaches to Studying the Medieval Church 15 1.3 Theoretical Approach 19 1.4 Methodology 21 1.4.1 Historiographical Analysis 21 1.4.2 Desk-based Survey 21 1.4.3 Landscape Interpretation 23 1.4.4 Data Analysis 26 1.5 Sources 30 iv 1.5.1 Archaeological Material 30 1.5.2 Written Sources 33 1.5.3 Place-names 37 1.5.4 Folklore and Tradition 38 1.6 Summary and Conclusions 39 Chapter Two - Literary Review 41 2.1 The Church in the High Middle Ages 43 2.2 The Parochial System in Scotland 46 2.3 The Parochial System in Norway and Iceland 48 2.3.1 Norway 50 2.3.2 Iceland 53 2.4 The Parochial System in England 55 2.5 Summary and Conclusions 58 Chapter Three – Orkney: A Review of Medieval Ecclesiastical Studies 63 3.1 The Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries 63 3.2 Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Investigations 64 3.2.1 Craven 64 3.2.2 Johnston 65 3.2.3 Clouston 67 3.2.4 Marwick 70 3.2.5 Goodfellow, Fraser, Dietrichson and Meyer 73 3.2.6 Summary 74 3.3 Contributions since the 1930s 76 3.3.1 Cant 77 3.3.2 Lamb 80 v 3.3.3 Crawford 80 3.3.4 Morris 81 3.3.5 Lowe 82 3.3.6 Summary 84 3.4 Conclusions 85 Chapter Four – Contextual Background 86 4.1 Settlement and Religion in the Orkney Landscape 86 4.1.1 Early and Middle Iron Age 87 4.1.2 Later Iron Age and Pictish Period 90 4.1.3 The Viking Age 94 4.1.4 Conclusions 100 4.2 The Pictish Church in Orkney 101 4.3 Orkney from 1065 to 1231 106 4.3.1 External Influences 106 4.3.2 The Orkney Earldom 109 4.3.2.1 Society and Settlement 110 4.3.2.2 Pre-Parochial Ecclesiastical Arrangements 112 4.3.2.3 Kirkwall 113 4.4 Summary 115 Chapter Five – Orkney Parish Characteristics 116 5.1 Internal Features 117 5.1.1 Urislands (Ouncelands) and Pennylands 118 5.1.2 Townships 124 5.1.3 Conclusions 126 5.2 Settlement Patterns 127 vi 5.2.1 Clouston’s Framework of Settlement 127 5.2.2 Marwick’s Settlement Chronology 130 5.2.3 Thomson’s Settlement Model 134 5.2.4 Old Norse Settlement Place-names 136 5.2.5 Summary 140 5.3 Land Ownership 141 5.3.1 Earldom Lands 141 5.3.2 Bishopric Lands 142 5.3.3 Kirklands 143 5.3.4 Udal Lands 143 5.3.5 Kingsland 143 5.3.6 Summary 144 5.4 The Agricultural Revolution 147 5.4.1 Transformation of the Landscape and David Balfour 147 5.4.2 ‘Improvements’ and their effects on Archaeology 150 5.4.3 Summary 152 Chapter Six – Data Analysis 153 6.1 Quality of Evidence 154 6.1.1 Site Evaluation 155 6.1.2 Evidence Evaluation 156